The operation of the Mexican banking system under foreign multinational corporations’ control: new activities and traditional income

This paper discusses the operation of banks in developing economies dominated by foreign multinational corporations (FMCs), and argues that banks have acquired new activities without drastically modifying the composition of their income. This discussion takes place in the light of the profound changes in financial systems that have modified the linkages between banks, capital markets, businesses and households, during the period of globalization and financialization. The main argument of this paper is that although foreign multinational corporations have become dominant in developing countries, and bank activities have diversified, the multinational corporations of the banking sector still rely on interest margins, particularly from consumer credit. This is explained in terms of specific bank credit activities that operate under oligopolistic structures, a condition that has not being modified by foreign multinational corporations’ dominance in developing banking markets.     

Financialisation and the slowdown of accumulation

Over the past decades, the financial investment of non-financialbusinesses has been rising, and the accumulation of capitalgoods has been declining. The first part of the paper offersa novel theory to explain this phenomenon. Financialisation,the shareholder revolution and the development of a market forcorporate control have shifted power to shareholders and thuschanged management priorities, leading to a reduction in thedesired growth rate. In the second part, the link between accumulationand financialisation is tested econometrically by means of atime series analysis of aggregate business investment for theUSA, the UK, France and Germany. Extensive tests of robustnessare performed. For the first three countries, evidence supportingthe negative effect of financialisation on accumulation is found.     

Testing for profitability and contestability in banking: evidence from Austria

The paper investigates the determinants of banking profitability and banking market conditions in Austria. We conduct a panel econometric analysis which allows for testing the hypotheses which have become the most prominent in the literature on bank profitability: the structure–conduct–performance hypothesis, the efficient‐structure hypothesis and the relative market‐power hypothesis. Further, we test whether Austrian banking markets are, on average, contestable. A newly compiled dataset covering more than 700 Austrian banks ranging over the period from 1995 to 2002 is used to carry out these econometric analyses. The empirical findings support the view that the Austrian banks do exert, on average, some local market power. However, the gains in terms of excess profits are rather minor as a result of low deterrence powers of the incumbent banks.     

Profitability of foreign banks in Central and Eastern Europe

This article uses data for 418 banks operating in Central and Eastern Europe between 1993 and 2004 to analyse the impact of the mode of foreign bank entry and of the parent institutions’ characteristics on bank profitability. The results show that foreign banks are affected both less and differently by domestic economic conditions, but do react to the health of the parent banks and the economic situations in their home countries. Their mode of entry is important: profits of banks entering via greenfield investment exhibit a complementary relationship with their parent banks, whereas profits of banks acquiring domestic institutions are negatively related to the opportunity costs in their home markets.     

The determinants and profitability of switching costs in Chinese banking

This article models the determinants of bank switching costs in China in terms of bank characteristics and non-bank variables. It also determines the contribution of switching costs to banks’ profits. Using a sample of 151 banks over the period 2003–2013 it reports a positive relationship between bank profitability and switching costs. The main result is that bank size measured by total assets has a complex relationship with switching costs. Competition between small banks creates the incentive for lock-in and increased switching costs whereas very large banks are less exercised by lock-in and switching costs.     

居民储蓄变动与经济增长及银行业之间关系研究

针对当前各界给予储蓄增长率持续降低的关注,本文认为,储蓄的增长本身与经济增长率之间存在并不十分确定的正向促进关系,其取决于经济所处的发展阶段以及银行的信用创造能力。在当前普遍强调储蓄下降对经济增长所起的负面作用情况下,对银行业的健康发展确实具有至关重要的作用,具体涉及到兑付风险、减少收入以及对股份制银行和上市银行的资本金影响。本文在实证检验了国内储蓄率变动的状况、原因之后,尝试从金融产品和国家税收政策等方面提出促进储蓄的对策建议。     

Growth,profits and foreign ownership in the Brazilian banking industry

The deregulation of the financial markets and their progressive globalization has favoured the internationalization of banking. Moreover, during the international financial crisis, the presence of foreign banks has increased in countries experiencing faster economic growth, such as Brazil. In this context, the aim of this study is to analyze the growth and profitability of the financial institutions in Brazil, taking into account the possible non-linearity of the relationship, the differences between Brazilian and foreign institutions and the effect of the crisis. Our results indicate that the entry of foreign institutions has a direct effect on the Brazilian banking industry.     

外资银行进入影响研究——基于面板数据和产业组织方法

本文基于我国14家银行1996—2005年的面板数据,对外资银行进入对我国银行业的短期影响进行了研究。实证结果表明,我国银行业对外资银行营业性机构数的增加反应不敏感,经营成本、盈利同外资银行市场份额的增加正相关,我国银行业市场符合结构一行为一绩效范式。本文认为,当前外资银行已经越来越快地融入我国金融体系,为应对外资银行进入的冲击,我国银行业应以金融控股公司模式实现综合经营,同时积极学习借鉴外资银行新的金融产品和管理经验。     

Inter-linkages between competition and stabilisation policies in the banking sector and stock market development in Europe

The banking sector and the stock market in Europe have been adversely impacted by a series of global financial crises over the last two decades. Major financial reforms were implemented to enhance the stability and competition within the banking sector. Measures were also implemented to create a vibrant stock market in Europe to stimulate economic growth in Europe. This study examines the interactions between stock market development, banking competition, and banking stability in European countries from 1996 to 2016. The purpose of the study is to understand the inter-linkages between these variables to ascertain the spillover impact of policy reforms in the banking sector on the stock market and vice-versa. Using a vector error-correction model, the study finds long-run and short-run inter-linkages between banking competition, banking stability, and stock market development in European countries. The study’s most robust result is that banking competition and banking stability stimulate stock market development in the long run. There is also some evidence that healthy competition in the banking sector and stock market development instils greater stability in the banking sector. The results suggest that policy measures put in place to create a vibrant stock market must include elevating banking competition and banking stability, with policymakers being cognizant that causality may be bidirectional.     

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.     

Uncertainty and the specificity of human capital

This paper studies the choice between general and specific human capital. A trade-off arises because general human capital, while less productive, can easily be reallocated across firms. Accordingly, the fraction of individuals with specific human capital depends on the amount of uncertainty in the economy. Our model implies that while economies with more specific human capital tend to be more productive, they also tend to be more vulnerable to turbulence. As such, our theory sheds some light on the experience of Japan, where human capital is notoriously specific: while Japan benefited from this predominately specific labor force in tranquil times, this specificity may also have been at the heart of its prolonged stagnation.     

Selectivity and Transparency in Social Banking: Evidence from Europe

How do social banks signal their social commitment to motivated funders? We hypothesize that two main channels are used: selectivity and transparency. We test these predictions using a rich dataset comprising balancesheet information on 5,000 European banks over the period from 1998 to 2013. The results suggest that social screening leads social banks to higher project selectivity compared to mainstream banks. Social banks also tend to be more transparent than other banks. However, combining selectivity and transparency can result in excess liquidity. Overall, the empirical findings not only confirm our theoretical hypotheses, but also raise challenging issues regarding the management of social banks.     

试论我国商业银行的金融创新

加入WTO后,我国商业银行已不可能依靠对外资银行的限制来对国内银行业进行保护,中资银行将直接面对国际金融市场的竞争,直接面对资金实力雄厚、管理手段先进、服务质量高效的国外金融机构的竞争。要在竞争中求生存、谋发展,惟有加快金融创新的步伐。     

Pragmatic financialisation: the role of the Japanese Post Office

The Japanese Post Office, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, was finally privatised in 2015, marking an appropriate time to examine financialisation in Japan. The literature on financialisation and changes in Japanese capitalism assumes convergence on Anglo-American capitalism with a diminishing of state power. The main argument of this paper is that financialisation is instead a more contingent process. This is put forth through an examination of how this process has been mediated by the Japanese state through the workings of the Japanese Post Office. The state has frequently shaped the direction of financialisation by intervening in the routing of household funds via the postal savings system in order to achieve its objectives in different circumstances, particularly evident in the protracted and contested nature of the post bank’s privatisation. Financialisation is thus not preordained; instead its path is hewn by crisis, catastrophe, demographics and the agency of domestic social actors.     

Demographic structure and capital accumulation

This paper develops an overlapping-generations (OLG) model to analyze the consequences of demographic structure changes induced by an exogenous shift in the birth rate. We first show that a finite growth rate of the population that maximizes long-run capital per capita exists. Then, we examine the theoretical properties of this growth rate by showing that: (i) it corresponds to the demographic structure such that the average ages of capital holders and workers are equal; (ii) it is associated to an efficient steady state; (iii) it increases with compulsory transfers from younger to older generations. Finally, we explain why standard OLG models do not exhibit such a growth rate.     

居民储蓄率与金融风险

以间接融资为主的独特金融结构决定了我国金融体系的稳定性对于银行体系从而高储蓄率的依赖。因而,研究我国居民储蓄率的决定因素以及其波动趋势并在宏观调控层面予以关注、监控就应成为防范金融风险的重要举措。     

Prudence, Intertemporal Substitution, and Savings under Uncertainty

This paper derives the relations between the coefficient of absolute prudence, the equivalent precautionary premium, risk aversion to concentration, and the normality and shift of current consumption under uncertainty, without the time-separable utility assumption. Examples show that Kimball's coefficient of absolute prudence does not fully characterize precautionary saving or saving behavior under uncertainty. It is proved that, whereas a higher rate of intertemporal substitution and a larger coefficient of absolute prudence imply more savings when current consumption is normal, a larger coefficient of intertemporal substitution and a smaller coefficient of absolute prudence imply more savings when current consumption is inferior. Received July 17, 2001; revised version received November 20, 2001     

浅析金融全球化与中国银行业重构

任何事物都具有两重性,金融全球化对任何国家都是利弊共存的,本文先就金融全球化的定义和特点作简要地阐述,然后通过对其他学者研究结论进行分析,得出结论,一个国家是否能从金融全球化中受益,取决于国家具体环境和体制特征,而这其中最重要的是金融体制,由于中国是以银行为主导的金融体制,所以,银行业重构就成了这个问题的关键。得出结论后,通过分析中国目前银行业存在的主要问题,参照韩国银行业重构的成功经验.提出了相应的重构方案。     

全面开放后中外银行竞争态势的比较分析

银行业全面开放后,外资银行的竞争优势主要来自于其中间业务收入、风险管理能力以及先进的激励机制所吸引的人才资源.未来两年内,外资银行在中国的竞争策略将有所变化,将侧重一些市场和业务领域的拓展.中资银行应通过自身的发展和完善,加强合作,不断提升竞争能力,以应对外资银行的挑战.