Bank Deregulation, Supervision, and Agency Problems

This article argues that the financial instability of the 1980s following financial deregulation in Australia can be partly traced to a lack of attention to agency problems in banking. Because the market for corporate control and corporate governance structures in banking were unsatisfactory, the benefits of increased competition in financial product markets were offset by inadequate monitoring and controls on bank management. It is also argued that the current emphasis of prudential supervision on capital adequacy requirements can provide only a partial solution to achieving efficiency and stability in the financial sector—because it focuses only upon the agency relationships between owners and government/depositors. Complementary developments in corporate governance and control are required to address agency relationships involving bank management. Some recent developments in this area and in supervision of non-bank financial markets are assessed from the perspective developed in this article.     

Bank loan versus financial lease: how do traditional and innovative approaches within the banking sector influence economic growth? A comparative analysis between the US and China

ABSTRACT

The argument over the effects of financial structures on economic growth remains unsettled. This study, therefore, compares the dynamic correlation and lead–lag relationship between the different financial approaches within the banking sector (that is, traditional bank loans versus innovative financial leasing) and economic growth. We employ a continuous wavelet analysis using time-series data from 1982–2017 from the US (the world’s largest developed country) and China (the world’s largest developing country). The empirical results show that (1) episodes of significant correlation usually emerge during periods of reform, crisis or policy implementation; and (2) in China, traditional banking promotes economic growth in the long term, while the real economy only imputes the evolution of banks during critical economic reforms in the short term. Meanwhile, financial leasing could only promote the development of the real economy under suitable regulation; and (3) in the US, before the crises, the irrational growth of the real economy could increase bank assets, while during the crises, the traditional banking approach harms economic growth, and after the crises, financial leases play an important role in recovery. Therefore, we suggest that policymakers should establish adequate policies and regulations to solve the situation.     

Study on the measurement of China’s financial intermediation ratio in terms of stock: 1992–2006

In terms of China’s financial intermediation ratio (FIMR) in stock, we make a thorough empirical study on the change of the ratios during 1992–2006. We find that: The monopoly position of bank credit in the financing channel of non-financial sector is weakened, but bank credit is still the most important financing channel for non-financial sector. There is a structure change in the financing channel of government sector and its FIMR is increasing. Though the scale of non-banking financial institutions underwent rapid development during 1992–2006, their role in social financing cannot be evenly matched with banking system. It is the change of various economy behaviors that induce the changes of FIMR in China.     

Small business lending and credit risk: Granger causality evidence

Because of their opaque nature, SMEs are overly reliant on bank lending. Therefore, we examine whether banks' credit supply to SMEs are affected by their financial conditions. To this end, we employ a Granger causality analysis to examine whether there is an indication of a significant direction of determination between SME lending and non-performing SME loans. The results reveal no bidirectional relationship between SME lending and NPL for the entire banking sector. For Islamic banks, however, we find two-way linkages between these two parameters: a negative causation is running both from SME lending to NPL growth and from NPL to SME lending. Given Islamic banks' deposit-oriented funding practices and their adherence to profit-and-loss sharing principles, this finding suggests the presence of heightened market discipline within the Islamic banking system.     

China's Banking Reform

This article discusses the main problems facing the Chinese banking system and concludes that, despite serious problems, the risk seems small that, in the near future, a financial crisis will occur that will pose severe problems for the international financial system. An internal financial crisis, however, could occur. Without government support, the economic viability of many of China's banks is questionable. The government and central bank authorities acknowledge the situation and have taken some steps toward reform. The most serious threat to the banking system lies in the accumulation of non-performing loans (NPLs)--many of them policybased loans extended by state-owned banks to money-losing state-owned companies with little expectation that they would be completely repaid. China has been taking measures to keep the problem from worsening and has created four asset management companies to dispose of NPLs that still have value. Since the Chinese economic reforms began in 1978, Chinese authorities have made significant progress in modernising their banking system, although they still have a long way to go. However, there are several ameliorating factors that still keep its financial and foreign exchange system viable. China's continued high rate of growth and high savings rate have funneled deposits into the banking system, while a $20-30 billion annual trade surplus together with an inflow of foreign direct investment at about $40 billion per year have resulted in an accumulation of foreign exchange reserves exceeding $200 billion. China does not carry an unusually heavy debt burden, either domestic or international, although its short-term borrowing in foreign currencies has been increasing. China does not currently face a serious risk of either a domestic or international liquidity crisis--unless, of course, a severe and prolonged world recession occurs that adversely affects Chinese exports as well as the inflow of foreign direct investment.     

Learning from Japan: The European Central Bank and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

What shapes central banks’ learning from the policy experiments of their peers? Both economic ideas and organizational interests play important roles. Thus, New Keynesian ideas led central banks to interpret Japan's experience with quantitative easing (2001–2006) through the impact on risk spreads, although the Japanese central bank never intended such effects. In turn, scholars and policy-makers alike ignored one critical lesson: successful policy innovations depend on banks’ funding models. It is argued here that this was a crucial omission because the shift to market-based funding impairs the effectiveness of the traditional crisis toolkit. Central banks must intervene directly in asset markets of systemic importance for funding conditions, as the Bank of Japan did by buying government bonds. Hence, market-based finance engenders a trade-off between financial stability and institutional stability defined through central bank independence. During critical periods, central banks cannot preserve both. The ECB illustrates this trade-off well. Early in the crisis, it outsourced financial stability to a (largely) market-dependent banking system to protect its independence. With the introduction of Outright Monetary Transactions in September 2012, the Bank recognized that the market-based nature of European banking required outright purchases of sovereign bonds. This new instrument gave the ECB additional powers to shape national fiscal decisions in the name of an independence that no longer has theoretical justifications.     

房价波动、隐含担保与银行系统性风险*

银行对房地产行业的信贷优先倾向导致信贷投放向房地产业集中,房地产价格波动对金融系统性风险的影响日益突出。本文基于银行与房地产两部门或有权益资产负债表分析框架,从资产和负债两个方面研究房地产部门对银行的风险传导机制,构造银行对房地产部门的隐含担保比例作为度量风险传导强度的指标,运用TVP VAR方法刻画2002—2016年我国房价波动与房地产部门、银行系统性风险的动态演变路径。研究结果表明,我国房地产风险主要通过银行信贷从负债项进行风险传导,房地产部门风险对风险传导强度的影响存在明显的结构性突变,银行系统性风险存在非线性加速恶化特征。本文最后提出要稳定房价、拓宽房地产融资渠道、降低地方政府对土地财政依赖等建议。     

存量视角下的中国金融中介比率测度:1992-2006年

对1992-2006年中国金融中介存量比率的实证分析发现,尽管非金融部门外部融资中银行信贷的高度垄断地位被逐渐削弱,但仍表现出高度依赖银行体系的贷款状况;而政府外部融资的来源则发生了结构性改变,市场中介融资已经成为政府融资最主要的来源,并由此导致金融中介在政府外部融资中的地位不降反升。此外,尽管非银行金融中介机构有了长足发展,但从相对资金融通的视角着眼,它还远远无法和银行抗衡。制约变迁约束下各部门经济行为的变化对融资机制有着重要影响。     

Location decisions of non‐bank financial foreign direct investment: Firm‐level evidence from Europe

The non‐bank financial sector in Europe has more than doubled in size between 2005 and 2015 reflecting the substantial growth in shadow banking activities. However, a large proportion of the non‐bank financial sector that remains unmapped as granular balance sheet information is not available for over half of the sector. Motivated by these data gaps and employing firm‐level data, this paper examines the location decisions of newly incorporated foreign affiliates in the non‐bank financial sector across 27 European countries over the period 2004 to 2012. The probability of a country being chosen as the location for a new foreign affiliate is found to be negatively associated with higher corporate tax rates and geographic distance but increases with the size and financial development of the host country. The financial regulatory regime in the host country and gravity related controls such as the home and host country sharing a common legal system, language, border, and currency are also found to impact the likelihood of non‐bank financial FDI.     

Market power and risk of Central and Eastern European banks: Does more powerful mean safer?

As understanding the market power–risk relationship in CEE banking systems is of the utmost importance to policy-makers in these countries, we investigate whether CEE banks must have greater market power to be safer. Our results suggest that more market power reduces the fragility of banking institutions, on one hand, and that banking market concentration tends to make these banks riskier, on the other. Our findings are robust to whatever form of market power-risk relationship and whatever market-power measures we use. More precisely, financial markets perceive CEE banks with more market power as less fragile, while the latter are also better capitalised with respect to the distribution of their returns. Moreover, they are even (much) better capitalised when they hold less-diversified and less-liquid assets and when they operate within a stricter banking regulatory environment, which suggests a risk-stabilising role for diversification, liquidity and the bank regulatory environment in these countries.     

Product diversification and bank risk: evidence from South Asian banking institutions

ABSTRACT

We investigate whether the product diversification activities of South Asian banking institutions have led to an increase or decrease in their solvency and profit risks. Using the data of five countries – India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – for the period 2000–2016, we analyse the effect of both income and assets diversification activities on the Z-score and SDs of ROA (Return on Assets) and ROE Return on Equity). Among income diversification activities, securities trading income has a significant positive influence on bank risk while other categories have no influence. With respect to assets diversification, non-interest-bearing assets and loans given to government were found to have a significant positive influence on bank risk, while mortgage loans and non-classified loans have opposite influences. However, the impacts of securities trading income and loans given to the government are mainly confined to private sector banks and state-owned banks, respectively. We also uncover some country-specific diversification influences on the above relationships.     

Bank Reform and Behavior in Central Europe

This paper analyzes the banking systems of the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland in a comparative perspective with the aim of determining whether hank behavior has changed as a reaction to banking reform and the new market environment. It is shown that bank behavior changed dramatically in 1992. The paper argues that behavior changed in response to nonperforming loans which came to light and to improved bank regulation and supervision. Nonetheless, much remains to be done to make the banking system effective in financial intermediation and corporate control. J. Comp. Econom., December 1994, 19(3), pp. 335-361. Bank for International Settlements, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland.     

银行业竞争加剧还是抑制了企业金融化*

银行业竞争与企业金融化有多种关联机制，既可能加剧企业金融化，也可能抑制企业金融化。本文利用2007—2019年沪深两市A股非金融类上市公司的面板数据，考察了二者之间的关系。结果发现：（1）竞争性的银行业市场结构抑制了企业金融化。（2）银行业竞争不仅缓解了债务成本对企业利润的侵蚀，有助于缩小金融行业与实体企业之间的利润率差距，进而抑制企业利润追逐动机的金融化行为，而且通过引导信贷资源配置促进了企业创新，从而对实体企业金融投资产生挤出效应；此外，银行业竞争还通过促使银行积极发挥信息监督作用，抑制了企业内部人金融投机套利的机会主义行为。（3）银行业竞争对企业金融化的抑制效应在非国有企业、中小企业以及市场化水平较低地区的企业中更为显著。这些结果说明，提高银行业竞争水平有助于抑制企业金融化趋势，扭转经济“脱实向虚”的局面。     

Financial development and openness: Evidence from panel data

This paper addresses the empirical question of whether trade and financial openness can help explain the recent pace in financial development, as well as its variation across countries in recent years. Utilising annual data from developing and industrialised countries and dynamic panel estimation techniques, we provide evidence which suggests that both types of openness are statistically significant determinants of banking sector development. Our findings reveal that the marginal effects of trade (financial) openness are negatively related to the degree of financial (trade) openness, indicating that relatively closed economies stand to benefit most from opening up their trade and/or capital accounts. Although these economies may be able to accomplish more by taking steps to open both their trade and capital accounts, opening up one without the other could still generate gains in terms of banking sector development. Thus, our findings provide only partial support to the well known Rajan and Zingales hypothesis, which stipulates that both types of openness are necessary for financial development to take place.     

Overcapacities in banking: Measurement,trends and determinants

Global banks face profitability challenges since the global financial crisis. Besides cyclical factors, structural features such as overcapacities have been identified as root causes. While policymakers agree on the need for bank consolidation, there is less consensus on the definition and measurement of overcapacities in banking. This paper contributes by conceptualising and formalising the different dimensions of overcapacities in banking and by constructing a novel measure thereof. In addition, it empirically tests the main determinants of overcapacities in banking from 2006 to 2017 and assesses their relative importance. The results indicate that non-bank competition, the interest rate environment and bank business models are the most important driving factors of banking sector overcapacities. This is because shadow banks, benefitting from regulatory arbitrage, have altered banks’ capacity needs, low rates compressed margins and increased pressure to improve cost efficiencies, and retail-oriented business models have operated extensive branch networks entailing heavy fixed costs.     

经营活动、融资策略对银 行利润和风险的影响 ——基于我国商业银行的验证

2008年全球金融危机引发了对银行经营模式的思考。本文基于我国97家商业银行2005-2012年的面板数据，综合考虑了银行经营活动和融资策略之间的关联，并系统验证了两者分别对银行风险和利润的影响。结果发现非利息业务的开展与融资渠道的拓宽都未起到显著提升利润、分散风险的效果。这个结论虽然与发达国家的经验存在一定的差异，但是由于我国商业银行积极开展非利息业务的动机较弱，并且仍然高度依赖存款融资，因此符合我国目前的情况。     

Bank efficiency in South‐Eastern Europe

This study examines the cost and profit efficiency of banking sectors in six transition countries of South‐Eastern Europe over the period 1998–2008. Using a stochastic frontier approach, our analysis reveals that the average cost efficiency of South‐Eastern European banks is 68.59 percent, and the average profit efficiency is 53.87 percent. Regressions on the determinants of bank efficiency show that foreign banks are characterized by higher profit efficiency but lower cost efficiency, and government‐owned banks are associated with lower profit efficiency than domestic private banks. However, the efficiency gap between foreign‐, domestic private‐ and government‐owned banks narrows over time. We also find that the market power of a bank has a positive association with both cost and profit efficiency. Institutional development, proxied by progress in banking regulatory reforms, privatization and enterprise corporate governance restructuring, also has a positive impact on bank efficiency.     

Bank risk proxies and the crisis of 2007/09: a comparison

The global financial crisis has again shown that it is important to understand the emergence and measurement of risks in the banking sector. However, there is no consensus in the literature which risk proxy works best at the level of the individual bank. A commonly used measure in applied work is the Z-score, which might suffer from calculation issues given poor data quality. Motivated by the variety of bank risk proxies, our analysis reveals that nonperforming assets are a well-suited complement to the Z-score in studies of bank risk.     

The Postal Sector as a Vector of Financial Inclusion

Access to finance has become a major policy issue under the term Financial Inclusion. In this paper, we focus on the role of postal operators in financial inclusion policies. In developing countries, postal firms typically manage a dense network of counters with a unique coverage of rural areas where the banking sector is totally absent. We use a formal location model for postal counters and bank agencies to show that in rural areas a post‐bank partnership can be a vector of financial inclusion and that this can be done profitably.     

Are Islamic Banks More Resilient During Financial Panics?

Islamic banking is one of the fastest growing segments of the financial sector in developing countries. Rapid growth of this segment is accompanied with claims about its relative resilience to financial crises as compared to conventional banking. However, little empirical evidence is available to support such claims. Using data from Pakistan, where Islamic and conventional banks co‐exist, we compare the behaviour of Islamic and conventional banks during a financial panic. Our results show that Islamic bank branches are less prone to deposit withdrawals during financial panics, both unconditionally and after controlling for bank characteristics. The Islamic branches of banks that have both Islamic and conventional operations tend to attract (rather than lose) deposits during panics, which suggests a role for religious branding. We also find that Islamic bank branches grant more loans during financial panics and that their lending decisions are less sensitive to changes in deposits. Our findings suggest that greater financial inclusion of faith‐based groups may enhance the stability of the banking system.