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This study finds robust evidence that banks headquartered in more religious areas take less risk and remain less vulnerable to financial crises. To reduce risk, these banks grow their assets more slowly, hold safer assets, rely less on non-traditional banking, and provide less incentives to their executives to increase risks. Local religiosity has a more pronounced influence on risks among banks for which local investors and managers are more important. But these banks command lower market valuations during normal times. Overall, this paper provides the first empirical evidence of the importance of human behavior in bank risk-taking