Abstract This paper uses a new, hand-collected database on ownership structure for a sample of commercial banks from 17 western European countries to explore the relationship between bank ownership structure and bank liquidity creation over the period 2004–2018. We focus on bank ownership concentration and on the identity of the major owner. Our findings are twofold: first, we find that ownership concentration has a significant and positive impact on liquidity creation. Specifically, we find that banks with over 65 % controlling ownership create more liquidity than other banks. Secondly, we analyze the impact of the nature of the owner on liquidity creation. We find that banks tend to create more liquidity when the owner is another bank or a state, holding a stake above 50 %, 65 % for a non-financial company, 75 % for a family and 85 % for a financial institution.