THE 1982 DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS ACT AND SECURITY RETURNS IN THE SAVINGS AND LOAN INDUSTRY

This paper provides empirical evidence on the market response to the 1982 Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act (DIA), as measured by changes in the prices of savings and loan associations' common stock. The analyses indicate positive, significant abnormal returns in the weeks immediately preceding both the passage of the DIA and the subsequent announcement of the specific terms of money market deposit accounts (MMDAs). No reaction to the surprise announcement of Super NOWs is found. Also, no significant changes in risk for savings and loans is detected surrounding the DIA and MMDA events. Consistent with the primary intent of DIA, this evidence suggests that investors perceived savings and loans to benefit from this legislation.     

THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF DEREGULATION ON SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS AND BANKS

The passage of the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 was a legislative response to the plight of the thrift industry. The Act broadened the asset/liability powers of thrifts and granted regulators emergency authority to aid failing institutions. In this paper we analyze the effect of the Act on the market returns of large S&Ls and banks using a two-factor estimating procedure. Single-factor models of depository institutions' returns produce biased estimates and confound the Act's interpretation. Explicit treatment of the event/risk interaction is necessary to avoid ambiguities in the interpretation of the Act's effect on the returns of depository institutions. It is difficult to use capital market data to pinpoint the effect of information flows on complex regulatory changes.     

An Examination of the Impact of the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 on Commercial Banks and Savings and Loans

This paper evaluates the effects of events leading to the passage of the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982. The evidence suggests that the call for reform by President Reagan's Housing Commission and the Senate passage of the bill produced positive abnormal returns to stockholders of large savings and loans and commercial banks. Stockholders of small S&Ls and banks, on the other hand, generally experienced negative abnormal returns. Furthermore, when hopes of passage of the Act faded, significant negative (positive) abnormal returns were experienced by stockholders of large (small) S&Ls and banks.     

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN GERMAN CAPITAL MARKETS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Financial economists continue to point to Germany as a relatively successful model of a "bank-centered," as opposed to a market-based, economy. But few seem to recognize that, in the years leading up to World War I, German equity capital markets were among the most highly developed in the world. Although there are now only about 750 companies listed on German stock exchanges, in 1914 there were almost 1,200 (as compared to only about 600 stocks then listed on the New York Stock Exchange).
Since German reunification in 1990, there have been signs of a possible restoration of the country's equity markets to something like their former prominence. The last 10 years have seen important legal and institutional developments that can be seen as preparing the way for larger and more active German equity markets, together with a more "shareholder-friendly" corporate governance system. In particular, the 1994 Securities Act, the Corporation Control and Transparency Act passed in 1998, and the just released Takeover Act and Fourth Financial Market Promotion
Act all contain legal reforms that are essential conditions for well functioning equity markets. Such legal and regulatory changes have helped lay the groundwork for more visible and dramatic milestones, such as the Deutsche Telekom IPO in 1996, the opening of the Neuer Market in 1997, and, perhaps most important, the acquisition in 2000 of Mannesmann by Vodafone, the first successful hostile takeover of a German company.     

Bank Holding Company Acquisition Activity: Evidence From Pre- and Post-Deregulation Periods

Both acquisition activity and deregulation have had an impact upon share price and performance of commercial bank holding companies. The purpose of this study is twofold: First, to discern the effects of acquisition activity from the effects of the passage of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA) and Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 (GSG) on balance sheet composition of bank holding companies; and second, to examine the effects of deregulation on returns to shareholders of acquiring bank holding companies. This study finds that commercial bank holding companies involved in acquisitions experience significant changes in their balance sheet composition, not as a result of acquisition activity, but as a result of deregulation. Additionally, bank holding companies that announced acquisitions prior to the effective date of deregulation earned abnormal returns that were significantly negative, whereas holding companies announcing acquisitions after enactment of deregulation earned returns that were not significantly different from zero. Also, the abnormal returns found in previous studies of bank acquisitions may be biased upward because of increases in systematic risk associated with the passage of DIDMCA and GSG.     

Joint Effects of Interest Rate Deregulation and Capital Requirements on Optimal Bank Portfolio Adjustments

The 1980 Depository Institution Deregulation and Monetary Control Act (DIDMCA) mandates that Regulation Q be phased out by 1986. With deregulation of interest rate ceilings, the cost of raising capital funds for commercial banks would become more volatile and more closely related with interest rates in the money and capital markets. Thus, value-maximizing bank managers would need to be concerned not only with the internal risk, but also with the external risk in bank portfolio management decisions. Based upon the cash flow version of the capital asset pricing model, this paper analyzes the joint impact of interest rate deregulation and capital requirements on the portfolio behavior of a banking firm.     

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.     

The influence on Congress by the thrift industry

The investigation of the influential role of the thrift industry on Congress as demonstrated by voting behavior on regulatory policy changes in the eighties is the focus of this study. Specifically, we search for the degree to which the inadequately capitalized component of the thrift industry has ‘captured’ the House of Representatives. We examine the influence on Congress by the thrift industry using the votes by the House of Representatives associated with three different legislative acts (the Garn-St Germain Act, the Competitive Equality Banking Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act) addressing the thrift crisis. Using a multi-chotomous voting model we identify traditional public choice variables that could influence the probability of voting for legislation. To capture the variation of the thrifts' interests, we consider a series of financial variables motivated by the thrift literature of failure prediction models. These variables allow us to investigate the influences from the health of the congressional district's thrifts, their asset composition characteristics, and their reliance on regulatory forbearance.     

A NOTE ON INTEREST RATES AND THE RISK OF BANK AND SAVINGS AND LOAN STOCK

This study examines the relationship between interest rates and the risk of bank and savings and loan stocks. Implied standard deviations from call option prices are used as risk estimates of the financial institutions’ stocks. Results indicate that there is a positive relationship between the risk of depository institution equities and the general level of interest rates. In addition, an upward shift in their risk occurred in late 1982, coinciding with several events that were important to the financial industry (the Penn-Square Bank failure, the Mexican debt crisis, and the passage of the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act).     

The role of strategic interactions in risk-taking behavior: A study from asset growth perspective

This study uses panel data on Vietnamese commercial banks from 2008 to 2018 in order to investigate the role of strategic interactions in determining bank risk-taking behavior by considering bank asset growth. The results suggest that aggressive competition is less favorable for banks striving for stability and that a high value of competitive strategy measure (as a proxy for strategic interactions) encourages risk-taking incentives. We also find that the distributional effects of strategic interaction on bank risk-taking because of asset growth reveal that the uncertainty in strategic-interaction-driven profits diminishes in banks with higher growth. This finding is consistent with the idea that when competition becomes more aggressive, bank restructuring should focus on increasing total assets by merging and acquiring small- and medium-sized banks to stabilize the banking sector. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that banks with low leverage or under regulatory pressure engage in more risk-taking. Therefore, policymakers may not implement a tighter capital requirement that contributes to a heightened level of risk. The results are robust to alternative measures of risk-taking and monetary policy stance as well as different econometric specifications.     

Stopping contagion with bailouts: Micro-evidence from Pennsylvania bank networks during the panic of 1884

Using a newly constructed historical dataset on the Pennsylvania state banking system, detailing the amounts of “due-froms” on a debtor bank-by-debtor bank basis, we investigate the effects of the Panic of 1884 and subsequent private sector-orchestrated bailout of systemically important banks (SIBs) on the broader banking sector. We find evidence that Pennsylvania banks with larger direct interbank exposures to New York City changed the composition of their asset holdings, shifting from loans to more liquid assets and reducing their New York City correspondent deposits in the near-term. Over the long-term though, only the lower correspondent deposits effect persisted. Our findings show that the banking turmoil in New York City impacted more exposed interior banks, but that bailouts of SIBs by the New York Clearing House likely short-circuited a full-scale banking panic.     

Pitfalls in systemic-risk scoring

In this paper, we identify several shortcomings in the systemic-risk scoring methodology currently used to identify and regulate Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs). Using newly-disclosed regulatory data for 119 US and international banks, we show that the current scoring methodology severely distorts the allocation of regulatory capital among banks. We then propose and implement a methodology that corrects for these shortcomings and increases incentives for banks to reduce their risk contributions.     

Reprint of: Stopping contagion with bailouts: Micro-evidence from Pennsylvania bank networks during the panic of 1884

Using a newly constructed historical dataset on the Pennsylvania state banking system, detailing the amounts of “due-froms” on a debtor bank-by-debtor bank basis, we investigate the effects of the Panic of 1884 and subsequent private sector-orchestrated bailout of systemically important banks (SIBs) on the broader banking sector. We find evidence that Pennsylvania banks with larger direct interbank exposures to New York City changed the composition of their asset holdings, shifting from loans to more liquid assets and reducing their New York City correspondent deposits in the near-term. Over the long-term though, only the lower correspondent deposits effect persisted. Our findings show that the banking turmoil in New York City impacted more exposed interior banks, but that bailouts of SIBs by the New York Clearing House likely short-circuited a full-scale banking panic.     

Stress tests and asset quality reviews of banks: A policy announcement tool

It is common in the supervision of banks to perform and disclose a simultaneous standardized assessment of their asset quality, organizational effectiveness, strategic viability and resilience to financial turmoil. By investigating the European Central Bank 2014 Comprehensive Assessment and the stock reactions of the banks to its findings, we find that this process provides limited assistance to the market in sorting good from troubled banks. Notwithstanding, the market adjusts to these findings, since it understands that they signal the stance of supervisory policy toward banking activities, which begets the level of regulatory risk and cost for the supervised banks.     

The Impact of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act On The Risk of Savings Institutions

The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) of 1989 was intended to enhance the safety of savings institutions. We develop and test a model showing how institution‐specific characteristics modify the overall effect of FIRREA on the risk of savings institutions. Our model incorporates market risk, interest rate risk, and exposure to real estate conditions. We find that risk shifts vary across savings institutions. Larger institutions exhibit no obvious shift in risk, while smaller institutions show reduced risk since FIRREA. Moreover, the effects are more favorable for institutions that maintained higher capital levels in response to FIRREA's provisions.     

The impact of the Arab Spring and the Ebola outbreak on African equity mutual fund investor decisions

Financial development and stock markets have been widely considered to be key factors in economic growth. Among institutional investors, mutual funds play a key role in providing financial resources to stock markets, particularly in developing countries. Different from other investments, mutual fund flows could be affected by retail investors’ behavior and their overreaction to specific events. We considered 78 equity mutual funds that are geographically specialized in African countries and observed monthly flows and performance for the period of 2006–2015. We find that two major events, Ebola and the Arab Spring, significantly affected the fund flows, controlling for fund performance, expenses and market returns. Retail investors over-reacted to these major events, withdrawing their savings from the African mutual funds. This result is particularly strong when connected to the media coverage of these events: the higher the number of articles about Arab Spring and Ebola, the higher the withdrawals. These irrational investors’ behavior damaged the funds’ managers market timing ability, and reduced the equity capital injection into African stock markets. Our results have several implications for both holders of frontier market mutual funds and the overall asset management industry.     

Bivariate Nonparametric Density Estimation of Stock Prices and Volume

This paper comprehensively investigates the joint movement of stock prices and trading volume of New York and Tokyo stock markets by undertaking nonparametric density estimation. Bivariate nonparametric density estimation has been reported as a powerful tool for revealing complicated relations between two variables. In application to finance, it is important to use a method robust for heavy-tailed densities, since the distributions of asset price changes are known to have heavy tails, and information about sudden and large price changes is contained in the tails. The empirical regularities found in this paper are mostly consistent with previous literature, but partially disagrees with the work of Gallant et al. (1992).     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Management of Investments. By JACK CLARK FRANCIS. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc., 1983. Pp. xvii + 669. Principles of Financial Management. By BURTON A. KOLB. Plano, Texas: Business Publications, Inc., 1983. Pp. xvi + 799. Financial Institutions, Markets, and Economic Activity. By TIM S. CAMPBELL. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1982. Pp. xviii + 604. The Fed. By MAXWELL NEWTON. New York: Times Books, Inc., 1983. Pp. xiv + 336. Financial Markets and Institutions. By ROBERT D. AUERBACH. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1983. Pp. xiv + 577.     

The Demise of the Mutual Organizational Form: An Investigation of the Life Insurance Industry

We investigate the role of organizational structure in financial services markets by examining the U.S. life insurance industry. Traditionally, stock and mutual life insurers were equally represented, but now the industry is mainly composed of stock firms. We find operational efficiency, access to capital, and tax savings are important determinants for this shift. The incentive to demutualize differs by the type of conversion: full demutualization is chosen for efficiency and access to capital reasons and partial conversion, using a mutual holding company, is chosen for tax savings. Firm operational efficiency improves after conversion. We also find the efficiency of the stock organizational form dominates that of the mutual structure during our sample period, 1995 to 2004.