This paper analyzes sovereign bondholdings by 20,000 banks in 191 countries and 20 sovereign default episodes over 1998–2012, establishing two robust facts. First, banks hold many government bonds (on average 9% of assets) in normal times, particularly banks making fewer loans and operating in less financially-developed countries. Second, during default years, banks with the average exposure to government bonds exhibit a lower growth rate of loans than banks without bonds (7-percentage points lower). These results indicate that the “dangerous embrace” between banks and their government plays a key role during sovereign defaults and its strength depends on local conditions.

Gennaioli thanks the European Research Council (grant ERC-GA 241114). Martin acknowledges support from the European Research Council (Consolidator Grant FP7-615651-MacroColl), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant Ramon y Cajal RYC-2009-04624), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (grant ECO2011-23192), the Generalitat de Catalunya-AGAUR (grant 2009SGR1157), the Ramón Areces Grant and the IMF Research Fellowship.