The risk relevance of International Financial Reporting Standards: Evidence from Greek banks

The main purpose of the paper is to estimate market, interest rate and exchange rate risk of Greek financial institutions and to explore the relationship between market-based measures of risk and accounting variables before and after the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in order to examine whether IFRS introduction enhances the information content of accounting data. Empirical results reveal that all banks are exposed to market risk while interest rate and exchange rate risk affect them occasionally. Moreover, the IFRS introduction reinforces the explanatory ability of accounting data, on systematic and non-systematic risks. Concerning the risk-relevance of accounting ratios, liquidity measures, credibility, earnings per share and provisions for credit loss are inversely related to systematic and non-systematic risks under IFRS. Moreover, loans to total assets ratio, interest rate spread and income diversification are directly associated with market measures of risk, while bank size is negatively related to both risk measures under IFRS. Our findings imply that the fair value orientation of IFRS is responsible for the higher risk-relevance of fundamentals as opposed to the historically oriented Greek Accounting Standards (GAS).     

存款保险、市场竞争与银行经营稳健性

本文基于银行存款市场空间竞争模型,探讨存款保险制度的实施效果和福利效应,及其与市场竞争政策的交互作用。研究表明,政府隐性担保尽管能够保障存款人利益,但会降低存款人对银行经营稳健性的要求,使得银行追求高风险高收益资产从而降低经营稳健性;而市场化的存款保险制度通过费率与风险挂钩的激励机制,能够有效提升银行经营稳健性,同时避免过高政策成本负担,实现较高的社会福利水平。随着市场竞争强化,引入风险差别费率保险制度,在提升银行经营稳健性和增进社会福利方面的效果逐渐增强。模型分析表明,当长期允许机构自由进出市场时,政府强化竞争政策短期可能降低银行的经营稳健性,但长期内高风险银行逐渐退出市场而更有效率的低风险银行进入市场,这种柔性市场退出机制使得银行业整体经营稳健性增强。因此,在金融市场中强化竞争政策,推行并完善当前市场化的风险差别费率存款保险制度,长期内有助于在保护存款人利益的同时,提升银行稳健性和社会福利。     

Back to the basics in banking? A micro-analysis of banking system stability

This paper analyzes the relationship between banks’ divergent strategies toward specialization and diversification of financial activities and their ability to withstand a banking sector crash. We first generate market-based measures of banks’ systemic risk exposures using extreme value analysis. Systemic banking risk is measured as the tail beta, which equals the probability of a sharp decline in a bank’s stock price conditional on a crash in a banking index. Subsequently, the impact of (the correlation between) interest income and the components of non-interest income on this risk measure is assessed. The heterogeneity in extreme bank risk is attributed to differences in the scope of non-traditional banking activities: non-interest generating activities increase banks’ tail beta. In addition, smaller banks and better-capitalized banks are better able to withstand extremely adverse conditions. These relationships are stronger during turbulent times compared to normal economic conditions. Overall, diversifying financial activities under one umbrella institution does not improve banking system stability, which may explain why financial conglomerates trade at a discount.     

DIDMCA and bank market risk: Theory and evidence

This paper examines the theoretical and empirical consequences of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 on the market risk of the US banking industry. We survey several theoretical arguments linking deregulation of deposit interest rates to market-based measures of bank risk. Capital market data for a sample of large commercial bank holding companies provides evidence that deregulation has accompanied increases in both systematic and nonsystematic measures of bank risk.     

中国的利率体系与利率市场化改革

利率对宏观经济均衡和资源配置有重要导向意义。央行确定政策利率要符合经济规律、宏观调控和跨周期设计需要。目前,中国的真实利率略低于经济增速,处于较为合理水平。中国已形成较为完整的市场化利率体系,主要通过货币政策工具调节银行体系流动性,释放政策利率调控信号,在利率走廊的辅助下,引导市场基准利率以政策利率为中枢运行,并通过银行体系传导至贷款利率,调节和优化资源配置,实现货币政策目标。中国具备继续实施正常货币政策的条件,将尽可能地延长正常货币政策的时间,目前不需要实施资产购买操作。在市场化利率体系中,收益率曲线非常重要,它反映利率由短及长的期限结构,可为各类金融产品和市场主体提供定价参考。收益率曲线的短端为货币市场基准利率,直接受央行货币政策操作的影响;长端则为国债收益率,主要反映市场对未来宏观经济走势的预期。经过多年发展,我国的国债收益率曲线应用日益广泛,整体趋于成熟,而在市场基础方面还有进一步提升的空间。     

金融衍生工具与银行系统性风险

从巴林银行倒闭到中航油、中石化衍生品交易巨亏,重新审视金融衍生工具与系统性风险的关系成为必然。金融衍生工具运用规模和比例呈急剧上升趋势,其初衷为对冲风险,契合金融服务实体经济功能,但由于其交易规则具有复杂性和不透明性,实施效果亟待检验。本文采用金融衍生工具视角,探索了分类金融衍生工具对银行系统性风险的影响及作用机理。结果表明,金融衍生工具会加剧银行系统性风险,包括外汇类和利率类金融衍生工具。金融衍生工具运用总体效果并不理想,且存在情境依赖,作用发挥呈现异质性。在后金融危机时代以及股市处于熊市时,金融衍生工具均加剧了银行系统性风险,在危机前则降低了银行系统性风险,但当处于牛市时则无显著影响。此外,在市场化进程高、机构持股比例高时,金融衍生工具加剧银行系统性风险的作用更为明显。本文从一个新的视角检验了银行系统性风险的影响因素,为探究其成因提供了新解释,也为未来系统性风险防控提供了新思路。     

Measuring Integrated Market and Credit Risk in Bank Portfolios: An Application to a Set of Hypothetical Banks Operating in South Africa

The banking crises of the ‘90s emphasize the need to model the connections between financial environment volatility and the potential losses faced by financial institutions resulting from correlated market and credit risks. Due to the number of variables that must be modeled and the complexity of the relationships an analytical solution is not feasible. We present here a numerical solution based on a simulation model that explicitly links changes in the relevant variables that characterize the financial environment and the distribution of possible future bank capital ratios. This forward looking quantitative risk assessment methodology allows banks and regulators to identify potential risks before they materialize and make appropriate adjustments to bank portfolio credit qualities, sector and region concentrations, and capital ratios on a bank by bank basis. It also has the potential to be extended so as to assess the risks of correlated failures among a group of financial institutions (i.e., systemic risk analyses). This model was applied by the authors to the study of the risk profile of the largest South African Banks in the context of the Financial System Stability Assessment program undertaken by the IMF in 1999. In the current study, we apply the model to various hypothetical banks operating in the South African financial environment and assess the correlated market and credit risks associated with business lending, mortgage lending, asset and liability maturity matches, foreign lending and borrowing, and direct equity, real estate, and gold investments. It is shown to produce simulated financial environments (interest rates, exchange rates, equity indices, real estate price indices, commodity prices, and economic indicators) that match closely the assumed parameters, and generate reasonable credit transition probabilities and security prices. As expected, the credit quality and diversification characteristics of the loan portfolio, asset and liability maturity mismatches, and financial environment volatility, are shown to interact to determine bank risk levels. We find that the credit quality of a bank's loan portfolio is the most important risk factor. We also show the risk reduction benefits of diversifying the loan portfolio across various sectors and regions of the economy and the importance of accounting for volatility shocks that occur periodically in emerging economies. Banks with high credit risk and concentrated portfolios are shown to have a high risk of failure during periods of financial stress. Alternatively, banks with lower credit risk and broadly diversified loan portfolios across business and mortgage lending are unlikely to fail even during very volatile periods. Asset and liability maturity mismatches generally increase bank risk levels. However, because credit losses are positively correlated with interest rate increases, banks with high credit risk may reduce overall risk levels by holding liabilities with longer maturities than their assets. Risk assessment methodologies which measure market and credit risk separately do not capture these various interactions and thus misestimate overall risk levels.     

我国金融机构尾部风险影响因素的非线性研究——来自面板平滑转换回归模型的新证据

“十三五”期间,我国防范化解金融风险攻坚战取得决定性成就,而在“十四五”规划开局之际,我国的金融风险形势面临新的挑战,防范风险仍是金融业的永恒主题。在此背景下,本文采用相对重要性分析技术方法,考察机构规模以及相关基本面因素对我国上市金融机构尾部风险的贡献程度。接着,本文结合边际效应分析技术考察机构规模对风险的异质性效应,深入分析“太大而不能倒”假说在中国的适用性。在此基础上,进一步运用前沿的面板平滑转换估计模型,研究机构规模与尾部风险的非线性关系,并分析基本面因素对该异质性效应的影响力度。研究结果表明,我国上市银行等金融机构规模的增加能够有效缓释我国金融系统的尾部风险,但该影响效应将随着特许权价值、资产质量、杠杆水平、成本水平、收入结构、贷款结构等基本面指标的变化而出现显著的非线性转变。在此基础上,对强化我国金融系统中的风险防控薄弱环节、提高金融机构的风险吸收能力提出建议,以期为我国深化金融业改革开放、推动高质量发展提供理论分析与实证检验的参考依据。     

Spillover effects of banking systemic risk on firms in China: A financial cycle analysis

This paper investigates the spillover effects of banking sector risk on firms in China and explores the risk transmission channels from the perspective of financial cycle. We use the banking risk-taking and systemic risk as the proxies of financial booms and busts. Our study yields four main findings. First, the banking risk-taking reduces firm risk in financial booms. Higher financing costs and constraints, larger firm size and financing scale, and state ownership inhibit the spillover effects. Second, the banking systemic risk increases firm risk during financial busts. Higher financing costs and constraints, larger firm size and financing scale, and state ownership facilitate the spillover effects. Third, the magnitudes of banking risk spillovers vary across industries, and this effect is more pronounced in the manufacturing industry. Fourth, bank risk-taking affects firm risk differently through various channels in different leading periods. When leading 1 to 3quarters, banking risk-taking reduces firm risk, and channel variables inhibit the spillover effects. However, when leading 4 to 8 quarters, the rising bank risk-taking eventually increases firm risk, and channel variables amplify its spillover effects. Our study offers important policy implications for risk assessment and mitigation in the Chinese loan market.     

Credit Risk in Two Institutional Regimes: Spanish Commercial and Savings Banks

Although credit risk is an important factor that financial institutions must cope with, the determinants of bank problem loans have been little studied. Using panel data, we compare the determinants of problem loans of Spanish commercial and savings banks in the period 1985–1997, taking into account both macroeconomic and individual bank level variables. The GDP growth rate, firms, and family indebtedness, rapid past credit or branch expansion, inefficiency, portfolio composition, size, net interest margin, capital ratio, and market power are variables that explain credit risk. However, there are significant differences between commercial and savings banks, which confirm the relevance of the institutional form in the management of credit risk. Our findings raise important bank supervisory policy issues: the use of bank level variables as early warning indicators, the advantages of bank mergers from different regions, and the role of banking competition and ownership in determining credit risk.     

Financial Sector transparency and net interest margins: Should the private or public Sector lead financial Sector transparency?

This study examines the effect of private and public sector led financial sector transparency on bank interest margins across eighty-six economies. Using a two-step dynamic system generalized method of moments, least square dummy variables, fixed effects and bootstrap quantile panel models between 2005 and 2016, the findings of the two-step GMM are reported as follows. First, results reveal that financial sector transparency whether led by private or public sector reduces interest margins. Second, while no statistical evidence was found on which of the two (private or public sector led transparency) is more effective in dealing with bank interest margins, public sector-led financial transparency is found to be more consistent in reducing bank interest margins across many more economies. Third, the study shows that the effect of financial sector transparency is visible at lower and middle levels of bank interest margins implying that economies with lower and moderately high bank interest margin level can benefit more from policies targeted at improving transparency in the financial sector. These findings imply that the sampled countries must enact policies and laws that deepen and expand financial sector transparency in order to potentially reduce bank interest margins for the good of banking market participants and society at large.     

Bank risk,competition and bank connectedness with firms: A literature review

The outbreak of the 2007–2009 financial crisis and of the European sovereign debt crisis again raised questions about the vulnerability and the behaviour of banking institutions. The unconventional monetary policies that followed have flattened the yield curve and created a low interest rates environment. This can give rise to risk-taking behaviour from banks and can therefore undermine the stability of the banking system with negative impact of the credit supply, corporate investment and real economy. This article proposes a literature review on the main determinants of bank lending and risk-taking decisions, going through the competition in the banking market, the bank connectedness with firms and the role of monetary and banking authorities. The systemic risk concept is also discussed as well as its drivers and potential measures that should be monitored by prudential authorities in order to preserve financial stability.     

The Impact of Macroeconomic and Financial Variables on Market Risk: Evidence from International Equity Returns

Using a GARCH approach, we estimate a time–varying two–factor international asset pricing model for the weekly equity index returns of 16 OECD countries. We find significant time–variation in the exposure (beta) of country equity index returns to the world market index and in the risk–adjusted excess returns (alpha). We then explain these world market betas and alphas using a number of country–specific macroeconomic and financial variables with a panel approach. We find that several variables including imports, exports, inflation, market capitalisation, dividend yields and price–to–book ratios significantly affect a country's exposure to world market risk. Similar conclusions are obtained by using lagged explanatory variables, and thus these variables may be useful as predictors of world market risks. Several variables also significantly impact the risk–adjusted excess returns over this time period. Our results are robust to a number of alternative specifications. We further discuss some economic hypotheses that may explain these relationships.     

U.S. Banking Sector Risk in an Era of Regulatory Change: A Bivariate GARCH Approach

This paper assesses the impact of regulatory change on the risk and returns of the U.S. banking industry. The impact of five major regulatory changes on banking sector risk was assessed using daily data for eighteen major U.S. regional banks, money center banks and savings and loan type depository institutions. Risk in this case was proxied via the use of an M-GARCH model which generates time dependent conditional beta estimates. The evidence obtained suggests that the impact of deregulation and reregulation on banking sector risk is case specific. Further, the results obtained show that the market model incorporating dummy variables, which has proven so popular amongst existing studies, discards important information about the variability of beta which the time varying conditional betas capture.     

美联储政策变化、国际资本流动与宏观经济波动

本文构建包含国际投资者、外资企业和银行流动性冲击的DSGE模型来探究美联储货币政策变动和政策不确定性对我国宏观经济的影响和作用机制。研究发现:(1) 美联储加息会导致我国产出、投资和通货膨胀的下降、汇率贬值、国际资本外流和银行系统流动性紧张。随着金融摩擦程度的增加和银行杠杆率的上升,美联储加息对我国产出、投资和资产价格的负面影响会进一步增强。(2) 美联储货币政策不确定性的增加会直接导致外资企业的投资、劳动需求和产出的下降,并对我国总产出、总投资和资产价格产生明显的负向外溢效应,进一步加剧我国宏观经济的波动。(3)为应对美联储的利率变动,适当限制国际资本流动能有效稳定我国经济波动和改善社会福利,而实施固定汇率和央行盯住美国利率的政策会加大宏观经济的波动,并导致社会福利下降。     

The exchange rate exposure of U.S. and Japanese banking institutions

In this paper, we examine the foreign exchange exposure of a sample of U.S. and Japanese banking firms. Using daily data, we construct estimates of the exchange rate sensitivity of the equity returns of the U.S. bank holding companies and compare them to those of the Japanese banks. We find that the stock returns of a significant fraction of the U.S. companies move with the exchange rate, while few of the Japanese returns that we observe do so. We next examine more closely the sensitivity of the U.S. firms by linking the U.S. estimates cross-sectionally to accounting-based measures of currency risk. We suggest that the sensitivity estimates can provide a benchmark for assessing the adequacy of existing accounting measures of currency risk. Benchmarked in this way, the reported measures that we examine appear to provide a significant, though only partial, picture of the exchange rate exposure of U.S. banking institutions. The cross-sectional evidence is also consistent with the use of foreign exchange contracts for the purpose of hedging.     

Internet finance development and banking market discipline: Evidence from China

Depositor discipline is the only viable and universal source of banking market discipline in China. This paper investigates whether the depositor discipline of banking works in the context of an emerging economy under financial repression and implicit government guarantee, such as the Chinese economy; how banking market discipline is affected by Internet finance development; and whether the impact of Internet finance development on market discipline changes across heterogeneous banks. The results suggest that, in general, measures of bank risk are negatively associated with the growth of deposit volumes. Internet finance development alters the sensitivity of deposit growth ratios to some bank risk measures. For non-state-owned banks, fewer measures of bank risk are significantly negatively associated with the growth of deposit volumes, and the attenuation impact of Internet finance development on market discipline for bank capitalization instead relatively increases. For large banks, market discipline works significantly, except in the case of the bank capitalization variable; moreover, these significant market disciplines are strengthened with the development of Internet finance.     

基于动态因子Copula模型的我国银行系统性风险度量

本文基于2007年至2019年我国14家上市银行的股票收益率,构建偏态t-分布动态因子Copula模型,利用时变荷载因子刻画单家银行与整个系统的相关性,计算联合风险概率作为系统性风险整体水平的度量,基于关联性视角提出了新的单家机构系统脆弱性和系统重要性度量指标——系统脆弱性程度和系统重要性程度。该方法充分考虑了银行个体差异性和系统的内在关联性以及收益率的厚尾性和非对称性,从而能够捕捉到更多的信息且兼具时效性。研究表明:银行机构在风险聚集时期相关程度更大,联合风险概率能够准确识别出系统性风险事件且在我国推行宏观审慎评估体系以后有明显降低;整体而言,大型商业银行系统重要性水平最高,同时风险抗压能力也最强;本文使用的度量方法降低了数据获取成本且更具时效性,有助于为宏观审慎差异化监管工作提供借鉴和参考。     

对外开放是否导致银行业的风险上升？——基于外资持股比例与海外资产占比的实证检验

对外开放是否导致商业银行的风险上升,以往学者的研究结论并不统一。本文基于中国392家商业银行的微观数据,检验了“引进来”(用外资持股比例作为替代指标)与“走出去”(用海外资产占比作为替代指标)对商业银行风险承担行为的影响。结果显示,对外开放与商业银行的风险之间呈现非线性曲线特征并存在临界点;对中小型商业银行而言,过高的外资持股比例与过低的境外投资规模会带来风险;对大型商业银行而言,境外投资规模存在一个阈值区间,在阈值区间内,可能导致银行风险上升。政策建议是:外资参股中小型商业银行的比例可能不宜过高,鼓励中小型商业银行加大境外投资力度,大型商业银行可以根据特定时期的目标来调整对外开放策略,同时应强化风险预警与防范手段,在坚持与扩大银行业对外开放的背景下,实施宏观审慎原则,维护我国金融体系的整体稳定。     

Competition for small firm banking business: Bank actions versus market structure

This paper addresses two questions related to the ongoing consolidation of the US banking industry and its effect on small firm financing. First, are conventional measures of market structure (e.g. geographic market size and deposit concentration) related to bank competition for small firm financial business? Second, does an increase in bank competition produce an improvement in bank services irrespective of market structure? To answer these questions we use a survey of small firm owners that asks them to report on changes in bank competition for their business. Our findings show that reports of increased competition by small firm owners are negatively related to the level of and change in deposit concentration. In addition, we find a significant positive association between changes in bank competition reported by small firms and their reports of changes in banking outcomes (e.g. service quality) that is independent of deposit concentration, firm risk, and credit usage.