The financial and economic performance of social banks

ABSTRACT

The financial crisis of 2008 provides evidence for the instability of the conventional banking system. Social banks may present a viable alternative for conventional banks. This article analyses the performance of social banks related to the bank business model, economic efficiency, asset quality, and stability by comparing social banks with banks where the difference is likely to be large, namely with the 30 global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) of the Financial Stability Board over the period 2000–2014. We also analyse the relative impact of the global financial crisis on the bank performance. The performance of social banks and G-SIBs is surprisingly similar.     

Social aspirations in European banks: peer-influenced risk behaviour

We test a sample of 3,586 banks from 33 European countries to determine whether performances above or below a social aspiration level (median performance of peer banks) influence banks’ aggregate risk levels. Our results are consistent with the behavioural theory of the firm and prospect theory in that we find that bank performance below a bank’s social aspiration level is followed by increased aggregate risk, i.e. risk-taking behaviour in the subsequent year. Although under-performing banks tend to be risk-takers, large banks and banks with high aggregate risk levels tend to limit the increase in their aggregate risk levels.     

Reconciling different truths about isomorphic pressure and distinctive behavior at European cooperative banks: Back to the future with Raiffeisen's principles

This article employs a new approach to address a key question in an expanding literature on European cooperative banks: are they still distinctive and sources of social innovation or did they suffer from organizational isomorphism throughout their history? First, we go back to the time when Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818–1888) formulated his principles for the forerunners of many contemporary cooperative banks. Subsequently, we identify areas where major adaptations to the archetypical model of cooperative banks have taken place or are still taking place today. We integrate a detailed explanation of the backgrounds and motivations of these steps with an analysis of isomorphic consequences and loss of distinctiveness that have allegedly emanated from these adjustments. Against the latter common opinion, we place an equally well‐founded dissenting view and formulate recommendations to stay on or return to the cooperative track. Thus, we reconcile conflicting assessments in scientific publications and present a balanced view on the current peculiarity of cooperative banks, substantiated by up‐to‐date figures. With the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak, we argue that, now more than ever, cooperative banks could demonstrate their solidarity, long‐term orientation and local anchoring—namely bringing Raiffeisen's principles back to the future.     

State-owned banks in the market for corporate control

We study the pre-deal characteristics of state-owned banks acquiring other companies, relative to their private counterparts. We build a unique international data-set of 3682 deals in the years 2003–2013. Econometric results highlight that those state-owned banks that are acting as acquirers have an ex-ante performance similar to their private benchmarks. The results are driven by the role of development banks. This new finding points to the recent evolution of some types of contemporary state-owned financial players.     

商业银行发行理财产品与股价崩盘风险

商业银行在我国金融体系中的地位举足轻重,是金融系统性风险的重要来源。近年来,理财业务的高速成长为商业银行累积了大量的风险,但无论是监管层、业界还是学界,对银行理财产品的关注主要集中在理财产品驱动因素以及其对商业银行业绩的影响上,忽略了商业银行发行理财产品所引发的风险累积及其对资本市场稳定的潜在影响。因此,本文利用2006-2016年中国境内上市银行理财产品的发行数据,从股价崩盘的角度研究其对银行自身股价产生的影响。本文研究表明:银行理财产品的发行会带来自身股价崩盘风险,理财产品发行数量越大,其股价崩盘风险越大;监管压力和理财产品刚性会加剧股价崩盘风险的发生。基于此,本文建议:相关监管机构重点关注监管考核压力较大的商业银行,商业银行要做好投资者的教育工作,淡化预期收益概念,并落实理财产品信息披露制度,更多地发行“开放式净值型”理财产品。     

马克思主义银行理论与中国中小银行发展

只有改革国有银行产权结构与发展非国有中小银行才能提高中国银行业效率和竞争力,完善社会主义银行体系,充分实现银行"普通中介人"职能,促进社会经济建设.     

商业银行践行社会责任的国际借鉴

可持续发展要求商业银行发挥和承担更多的社会责任，同时这也是促使商业银行更好发展的有效路径。中国商业银行对企业应负的社会责任认识上不够，行动上迟缓，这将大大阻滞其融入世界经济的步伐，对此，中国商业银行应尽快接受赤道原则，跟上世界银行业发展的潮流。     

Ex ante capital position,changes in the different components of regulatory capital and bank risk

We investigate the impact of changes in capital of European banks on their risk-taking behaviour from 1992 to 2006, a time period covering the Basel I capital requirements. We specifically focus on the initial level and type of regulatory capital banks hold. First, we assume that risk changes depend on banks’ ex ante regulatory capital position. Second, we consider the impact of an increase in each component of regulatory capital on banks’ risk changes. We find that, for highly capitalized, adequately capitalized and strongly undercapitalized banks, an increase in equity or in subordinated debt positively affects risk. Moderately undercapitalized banks tend to invest in less risky assets when their equity ratio increases but not when they improve their capital position by extending hybrid capital or subordinated debt. On the whole, our conclusions support the need to implement more explicit thresholds to classify European banks according to their capital ratios but also to clearly distinguish pure equity from hybrid and subordinated instruments.     

中外商业银行竞争合作关系的实证研究

外资银行的大举进入中国市场给中资商业银行带来了学习机会,同时也带来了竞争压力。但双方各有其自身的优势,通过合作将会促进双方的发展进步,因此,加强中、外资银行的金融合作对于双方来说是一种必要的方式。根据1993～2006年的面板数据对银行盈利、经营管理和抗风险能力进行实证研究,发现外资银行进入导致了我国商业银行资产收益率、费用率下降,提高了中资商业银行高管的平均收入、并对第二大股东持股比例产生了显著影响。最后建议中国商业银行在与外资银行的合作中,能够妥善处理与战略投资者的利益平衡关系,但又要注意外资银行的持股比例问题;在竞争中能够借鉴外资银行的先进技术和经营管理理念,进行自身管理机制的完善和经营机制的转型,最终能够提升风险管理水平和核心竞争力。在和外资银行的竞争合作中,能实现自身的战略目标,促使其成为国际一流的商业银行。     

THE BLACK SOCIAL ECONOMY: PERSEVERANCE OF BANKER LADIES IN THE SLUMS

In a neoliberal world where commercial financial services are controlled by elites, poor Black women in the slums are usually excluded from financial programs – even microfinance ones. In my empirical study of 491 people in Jamaica, Guyana and Haiti, I argue that the participation in informal banking systems by the poor, not only provides coping tools for livelihood survival, but banker ladies insert a program of social connectedness and political action when they organize these local resources. Banker ladies have a clear social justice agenda: to validate the business activities of marginalized people. Informal banks are a counter project to neoliberalism because it is focused on the collective, where poor Afro‐Caribbean women are creating alternative financial programs that are squarely part of the social economy.     

Equity and asset growth among Subchapter S banks

Since 2004, commercial banks in the United States have been allowed to elect Subchapter S (hence Sub-S) status with up to 100 shareholders. That limitation may promote more effective monitoring of bank managers by shareholders which can, in turn, explain previous findings of superior performance among Sub-S banks. The present research focuses on the possibility that the shareholder limitation also constrains opportunities for bank growth, or a slow growth hypothesis for Sub-S banks. Using a differences-in-differences regression approach for a sample of community banks (i.e., less than $1b in assets) from 2004 to 2014, and controlling for initial assets and urban location, it is found that annual growth in real assets and equity was significantly higher among banks that never held Sub-S status than for banks that always held Sub-S status, and that banks switching to Sub-S later grew significantly faster than those that always held Sub-S status. Fixed effects regressions show that switching to Sub-S status significantly reduced equity growth, with asset growth significantly reduced after 2008. In conjunction with earlier findings, the results suggest that the availability of Sub-S status helped to protect and strengthen community banks across a time period including substantial financial turmoil.     

The Theory of the Second Best and the Competitive Equilibrium Model

We study the international transmission of bank liquidity shocks from multinational, Islamic, bank-holding companies to their subsidiaries. Based on a total sample of 120 Islamic and conventional bank subsidiaries, we test whether foreign bank lending for Islamic and conventional banks is determined by different factors. We estimate a model that includes subsidiary and parent bank characteristics as well as host and home country variables. Our empirical findings show that lending is negatively affected by the fragility of conventional parent banks' subsidiaries. Nevertheless, we show that parent Islamic banks do not significantly affect lending by subsidiaries. Finally, we examine the market discipline regarding the transmission of liquidity shocks. We also find that reduction in foreign Islamic bank lending is stronger for those that are dependent on the interbank market. We establish that the depositors react to a deterioration of bank performance and punish their institutions by withdrawing their money. We show that market discipline has a more important role for Islamic banks, whereas liquidity needs determine the change in conventional banks.     

民营银行发展的重要之源：城市商业银行民营化

在中国经济高速增长的同时,经济与金融结构都在发生巨大的变化。金融市场的竞争、金融体系的完善都迫切需求开放和发展民营银行。另一方面,在新的经济形势下,众多城市商业银行原有的模式已不适应其发展,银行问题突出,改革势在必行。而民营化改革因为其独特的优点应成为城市商业银行较好的改革途径,这同时又为民营银行发展创造了条件。因此,发展民营银行的一个重要之源便是城市商业银行民营化,与此同时,做好民营化改革相应的配套工作也是极为必要的。     

我国股份制商业银行不良资产现状及对策研究

本文描述了我国股份制商业银行不良资产现状,并从宏观经济环境、银行自身弱势、法人治理结构及社会信用等方面,对我国股份制商业银行不良资产的成因进行了客观分析,重点阐述了我国股份制商业银行解决不良资产的战略选择。本文既提出了为解决不良资产营造宽松的外部环境、建立现代企业制度、构建良好的社会信用环境等宏现战略,又提出了坚持实效化解不良资产、采取多种不良资产处置方式等微观策略。     

Winners and losers from financial derivatives use: evidence from community banks

This article provides empirical evidence on how profitability of small community banks was affected by derivatives use before and after the 2008 crisis. We use an endogenous switching regressions model to estimate the sensitivity of bank profitability to risks and control for the endogenous choice to use or not to use derivatives. We then compute counterfactual effects and show how profitability would have looked without derivatives use for banks that used derivatives and how it would have looked with derivatives for banks that did not use derivatives. The results show that derivatives helped reduce the sensitivity of profitability to credit risks and improved profitability for most specialists. However, for the largest number of banks which are non-user non-specialists, devivates use would have resulted in lower return on assets had they used derivatives post 2008. Therefore, our evidence suggests that implementation of the Volcker Rule, imposing high compliance costs on community banks and, thus, discouraging hedging, may have a negative impact on profits of specialists banks but, overall, a neutral effect on profits in the community banks industry as a whole.     

中国银行运营效率及其影响因素的实证分析

本文将资产收益率作为衡量指标和被解释变量,资源配置能力(贷存比)、资产费用率、资产利用率、人员增长率等作为解释变量.将贷存比、资产费用率、人员增长率等多项统计指标作为解释变量,选取了我国12家银行机构的时序与截面混合数据,利用Panel Data计量方法,对商业银行运营效率及响因素进行了实证分析.     

Small is beautiful but large is not to be belittled: reply

We appreciate that the Italian central bank has been able to provide the requested information for our comparison of the research output of European central banks. Based on this information, the ranking of the Italian central bank improves considerably. Still, many small central banks have a better research performance than the Banca d'Italia and, after recomputation, our previous conclusion that “small is beautiful” is not compromised.     

Regional foreign banks and financial inclusion: Evidence from Africa

Regional foreign banks expanded quickly over the past decade in developing and emerging countries and have a growing influence in banking systems. We question whether the development of African regional foreign banks, also called Pan-African banks, influences financial inclusion of firms and households. To this end, we combine the World Bank Global Findex database and the World Bank Enterprise Surveys with a hand-collected database on the presence of regional foreign banks. We find that Pan-African banks presence increases firms’ access to credit and limited evidence that they favor financial access of the middle class by restoring confidence in banks. We suggest that this impact is related to the adoption of an aggressive strategy aiming at gaining market shares rather than through the exploitation of informational and technological advantages.     

A performance assessment of Mozambique banks: a Bayesian stochastic frontier

This article analyses the technical efficiency of Mozambican banks from 2005 to 2014 with a Bayesian stochastic frontier model. The intermediate approach is adopted and the results reveal that efficiency varies amongst the banks analysed. Foreign ownership of Mozambican banks is also analysed, as is public ownership, the role of mergers and acquisitions, big banks and active dividend policy within the context of bank costs. Policy implications are then derived.     

The impact of foreign capital on the Chinese banking market

In China, the foreign capital share of banks was restricted to 25% until 2006. Does such a relatively low share of foreign capital have any impact on the banking sector? In this paper, we use panel data on 19 major banks during 1996–2004 to shed light on the impact of foreign capital participation on the Chinese banking industry. We find that although the operating performance of foreign-owned banks is basically worse than that of domestic banks, as the market share of foreign-owned banks rises, they improve. For domestic banks, non-interest income decreases, while interest income increases. Therefore, the net effect of the foreign-owned banks' share on the profitability of domestic banks is small.