The Determinants of Bank Capital Ratios in a Developing Economy

This paper reports new findings on the determinants of bank capital ratios. The results are from an unbalanced panel data set spanning eight years around the period of the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis. Test results suggest a strong positive link between regulatory capital and bank management’s risk-taking behaviour. The risk-based capital standards of the regulators did not have an influence on how regulatory capital is adjusted by low-capitalized banks, perhaps due to the well-documented banking fragility during the test period. Finally, bank capital decisions seem not to be driven by bank profitability, which finding is inconsistent with developed country literature that has for long stressed the importance of banks’ earnings as driving capital ratios. Although the study focuses only on one developing economy, these findings may help to identify the correlates of bank capital ratios in both developed and developing economies since this topic has received scant attention of researchers. These findings are somewhat consistent with how banks engaging in risky lending across the world could have brought on the 2007–2008 banking liquidity and capital erosion crisis.     

公司治理、资本监管与银行风险承担

选取2007-2017年中国25家上市银行数据,采用面板回归模型对公司治理与资本监管对银行风险承担的影响进行实证分析。研究表明：股权集中度与银行风险承担之间呈正U型关系,较低的股权集中度会降低银行风险资产配置权重,股权集中度的提升会加大银行风险承担。董事会规模会促进银行风险承担,董事会规模过大将平滑单个董事表决权,导致董事会控制效率下降而引发银行经营决策频繁变动,由此加大银行风险承担。资本监管会抑制银行风险承担,资本监管的趋严促使银行减持风险资产进行资本补充;资本监管对股份制银行、国有大型银行与城农商银行风险承担的影响力度依次递减。货币供给增速的放缓将降低银行存款吸收能力,由此加大银行流动性风险,货币供给对银行信贷存在制约效应;经济增速的下调将降低企业盈利能力,由此加大银行风险承担,银行存在顺周期放贷倾向。     

资本约束、治理机制和银行风险承担

本文运用我国2006—2009年34家商业银行的127个面板数据,对资本约束、治理机制对于银行风险承担的影响进行了实证研究。结果发现：银行的风险主要与银行的治理机制有关、与银行的资本约束无关,银行的第一大股东持股比例以及董事会的规模与银行的风险负相关,高管的薪酬与银行风险正相关。银行资本的变动受到两者的共同影响。     

Bank governance,regulation and risk taking

This paper conducts the first empirical assessment of theories concerning risk taking by banks, their ownership structures, and national bank regulations. We focus on conflicts between bank managers and owners over risk, and we show that bank risk taking varies positively with the comparative power of shareholders within the corporate governance structure of each bank. Moreover, we show that the relation between bank risk and capital regulations, deposit insurance policies, and restrictions on bank activities depends critically on each bank's ownership structure, such that the actual sign of the marginal effect of regulation on risk varies with ownership concentration. These findings show that the same regulation has different effects on bank risk taking depending on the bank's corporate governance structure.     

商业银行公司治理的国际经验：比较及启示

国外商业银行公司治理模式可划分为美英模式、德日模式、亚洲家族模式和转型经济治理模式。发达国家银行业的公司治理实践表明,现代商业银行公司治理的发展趋势是美英模式和德日模式的融合。亚洲地区及部分转型经济国家银行公司治理低效的根源是银行与微观经济主体之间的信息严重不对称及政府对银行强有力的影响。从发达国家对银行公司治理的探索以及转型国家的经验来看,银行公司治理的优化不仅仅涉及政府的行为,监管的取向,法律体系的完善等传统关注的领域,还涉及产权改革的初始化设计,产权能否低成本的连续交易等新的问题。     

Obstacles to a global banking system: “Old Europe” versus “New Europe”

“Old Europe” – the developed nations of continental Europe – averages only about 15% foreign bank ownership, whereas “New Europe” – the transition nations of Eastern Europe – averages about 70%. Similar findings hold elsewhere in the world – developed nations tend to have much lower foreign bank ownership shares than developing nations. We examine the causes of the differences within Europe with an eye toward more general conclusions. Our findings suggest that the low foreign bank shares in “Old Europe” – and perhaps developed nations more generally – may primarily result from net comparative disadvantages for foreign banks and relatively high implicit government entry barriers. The high foreign penetration in “New Europe” – and perhaps developing nations more generally – may be due to net comparative advantages for foreign banks and low government entry barriers, particularly in nations that reduced their state bank ownership.     

Venture Capital Networks in Southeast Asia: Network characteristics and cohesive subgroups

Venture capital firms (VC) have encountered with uncertainty and risk of asymmetric information due to an investment in early-to-growth stage start-ups with technological base and high growth potential. Venture capital syndication network helps reduce a broad gap of information asymmetry in a venture capital investment. Moreover, network connections are found to be the success factor for venture capitalists under a lack of fully developed institutional environment in emerging market. Venture capital industry in Southeast Asia is nascent yet in demanding and fast growing. Despite a decline in the number of venture deals in the US, the deals keep surging in Southeast Asia (SEA), one of the most significant and dynamic propellers of the world economy. To develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem in SEA, it is interesting to examine how VC firms are connected to one another. Even though several literatures found some distinctive network characteristics amidst the US, European and Chinese venture capital market, the Southeast Asian has left unattended. In this paper, we initiate the network of venture capital firms among Southeast Asian nations and explore their relationships through social network analysis. The purposes of this study are to investigate the topological and statistical properties of VC network consisting of small-world behavior, power law distribution, and centrality measure such as degree, closeness, and betweenness. In addition, we classify various levels of connections into subnetworks and examine influential groups of VCs in Southeast Asia.We initiate an empirical study on the characteristics of VC network across different countries in Southeast Asia by using a unique hand-collected dataset of syndicated deals. Social network analysis has initially and preliminarily been applied to the VC network in this region. This paper contributes to VC network literature in providing a unique network structure and network metrics of venture capital in SEA. In managerial contribution, this study provides more structural VC cooperation towards VC syndication networks. This benefits to venture capital firms who are looking for potential partners in Southeast Asian region and start-up companies who are looking for funding with high-networked or influencial VCs. The results also confirm previous evidence of significance on VC networks in emerging market, even if the institution and regulation are claimed to fall behind that in the developed market. This research introduces the fact that the venture capital network in Southeast Asia has small-world pattern and Singapore acts as a hub of venture capital market in the region. Top-ranking VC firms have been listed by network centrality across nations, while multi-company syndications are prevailing in Southeast Asia.     

Foreign bank entry and bank competition: Cross-country heterogeneity

This study investigates the impact of foreign bank entry on bank competition in the host countries. Using data for 148 countries over 1987–2015, I find that although on average an increase in the number of foreign banks is associated with more competition in the host country, competition increases in developed but decreases in developing countries. Stringent capital requirements, higher market entry barriers, and effective credit information sharing can mitigate the impact of foreign bank entry, while better supervision and external governance strengthen the link between foreign bank presence and competition. The findings justify the regulations on bank capital adequacy and call for an effective credit information sharing mechanism.     

Reforms in Thai bank governance: The aftermath of the Asian financial crisis

This paper provides an empirical analysis of Thailand's bank governance reforms after the 1997 Asian financial crisis and then examines the stock market's response. Unlike the pre-crisis period, we find that the bank sector returns (or return volatilities) have become more Granger causal to the overall stock market in the post-crisis period. Announcements of bank governance reforms are also generally associated with significant change in bank sector returns. This adds to the proposition that improved bank governance is related to improved bank performance as measured by their bank stock returns.     

Banking Market Size Structure and Financial Stability: Evidence from Eight Asian Countries

Using commercial bank data from eight major Asian countries, we examine the relationship between the banking market size structure and the stability of financial institutions. We also analyze the effect of bank upsizing on the financial stability. Our results show that a rise in large banks’ market power, accompanying an increase in their market shares, lowers the capital adequacy of small banks. Small banks’ nonperforming loans and the possibility of their bankruptcy also increase as large banks’ market shares rise. We further show that larger banks tend to have lower capital adequacy ratios, liquidity ratios, and distance-to-default ratios. Our study suggests that large banks’ greater market shares are associated with small banks’ financial instability. Overall, these findings are consistent with the notion of the recent banking literature that has important antitrust policy implications.     

The effect of financial market development on bank risk: evidence from Southeast Asian countries

This paper examines how bank risk varies with changes in financial markets development in a broad data set of 52 publicly listed commercial banks in five Southeast Asian countries over a 23-year period between 1990 and 2012. A consequence of two financial crises (i.e. the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 and the global financial crisis of 2007–2009) provides a natural experiment in which linkages between financial markets development and bank risk are measured. Empirical results show that higher degrees of financial markets development are associated with weaker bank capital positions and are positively related to higher degrees of bank revenue diversification. There is also evidence for a U-shaped relationship between the degree of financial markets development and bank capital.     

亚洲汇率波动及政策挑战

自东亚危机以来,亚洲各国采取了一系列的措施降低货币危机的风险,包括执行保守的汇率政策,实现经常账户盈余,积累外汇储备,减少外部债务,谨慎开放资本市场和展开地区金融合作,这些改革使亚洲在全球金融危机期间的表现远胜于其他新兴市场经济。但亚洲货币依然受到了严重冲击,而且出现了非常大的差异性。这既是亚洲的开放经济所决定的,同时也在三个方面对下一步的亚洲汇率政策提出了挑战:第一,汇率体系究竟应该浮动还是管制?第二,到底多少外汇储备才是最佳规模?第三,地区金融合作能否增强亚洲汇率的稳定性?     

The long-term effects of bank recapitalization: Evidence from Indonesia

Do government-sponsored bank recapitalization programs spur lending and reduce risk? This paper assesses the impact of Indonesia’s bank recapitalization program on lending and bank risk following the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Using unique bank-level data, difference-in-differences estimates suggest that recapitalization increased lending (and more so for larger banks), but also boosted bank risk in the long term. Results remain robust to considerations of (1) bank-level differences in political connections, business group affiliation, ownership type, and (2) changes in macroeconomic conditions, capital requirements, accounting regulations, and public credit registry availability.     

The impact of state ownership on performance differences in privately-owned versus state-owned banks: An international comparison

This paper examines how government ownership and government involvement in a country’s banking system affect bank performance from 1989 through 2004. Our study uncovers an interesting pattern of changing performance differences between state-owned and privately-owned banks around the Asian financial crisis. We find that state-owned banks operated less profitably, held less core capital, and had greater credit risk than privately-owned banks prior to 2001, and the performance differences are more significant in those countries with greater government involvement and political corruption in the banking system. In addition, from 1997 to 2000, the 4-year period after the beginning of the Asian financial crisis, the deterioration in the cash flow returns, core capital, and credit quality of state-owned banks was significantly greater than that of privately-owned banks, especially for the countries that were hardest hit by the Asian crisis. However, state-owned banks closed the gap with privately-owned banks on cash flow returns, core capital, and nonperforming loans in the post-crisis period of 2001–2004. Our findings can best be explained by Shleifer and Vishny’s [Shleifer, A., Vishny, R.W., 1997. A survey of corporate governance. J. Finance 52, 737–783] corporate governance theory on state ownership of firms and Kane’s [Kane, E.J., 2000. Capital movement, banking insolvency, and silent runs in the Asian financial crisis. Pacific-Basin Finance J. 8, 153–175] life-cycle model of a regulation-induced banking crisis.     

Board Accountability and Risk Taking in Banking: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

In this paper, a law reform is evaluated that aimed at improving the corporate governance of banks by tightening accountability and legal liability of outside directors. The causal effect of the reform on bank risk is identified by difference-in-differences and triple differences strategies. The estimation results show that banks subject to the reform increased capital and liquidity ratios. Hence, designing board-level governance can be an effective policy tool for altering the risk-taking behavior of banks.     

Return Relationships between Listed Banks and Real Estate Firms: Evidence from Seven Asian Economies

This paper studies the return relationships between listed banks and real estate firms in seven Asian economies before and after the Asian financial crisis. We find that listed banks were exposed to real estate risk both before and after the crisis, but that the exposure increased in the post-crisis period. After the crisis, the hidden risk of real estate collateral in the bank lending process was explicit, as was evidenced by the increased sensitivity and the structure break. In terms of causality, the returns of listed real estate firms are found to Granger-cause the returns of listed banks. However, there is mixed evidence as to whether listed bank returns Granger-cause the returns of listed real estate firms. The study is significant because it indicates the importance of lending policies in relation to the real estate market in establishing a healthy financial system.     

Further Evidence on the Link between Finance and Growth: An International Analysis of Community Banking and Economic Performance

We try to contribute to both the finance-growth literature and the community banking literature by testing the effects of the relative health of community banks on economic growth, and investigating potential transmission mechanisms for these effects using data from 1993 to 2000 on 49 nations. Data from both developed and developing nations suggest that greater market shares and efficiency ranks of small, private, domestically owned banks are associated with better economic performance, and that the marginal benefits of higher shares are greater when these banks are more efficient. Only mixed support is found for hypothesized transmission mechanisms through improved financing for small and medium enterprises or greater overall bank credit flows. Data from developing nations are also consistent with favorable economic effects of foreign-owned banks, but unfavorable effects from state-owned banks.     

Credit information sharing in the nexus between charter value and systemic risk in Asian banking

In this paper, we assess whether the link between charter value and systemic risk in banking is affected by credit information sharing at the country level. Using a sample of Asian listed banks, we document that banks with higher charter value exhibit lower systemic risk because these banks hold more capital. Nevertheless, we find that the self-disciplining role of charter value in banking is more pronounced for countries with lower depth of credit information sharing. Specifically, our findings also reveal that higher charter value alleviates systemic risk and increases capitalization, particularly in countries with lower quality of private credit bureaus. These findings suggest that higher charter value can be detrimental for financial stability due to an increase in bank systemic risk, particularly when private credit bureaus are of better quality. In order to overcome bank systemic risk, this paper advocates the importance of strengthening bank competition to limit charter value, in addition to promoting the development of private credit bureaus.     

International Comparisons of Banking Efficiency

The banking industry around the globe has been transformed in recent years by unprecedented consolidation and cross‐border activities. However, international consolidation has been considerably less than might have been expected in developed nations—such as long‐term members of the EU—where barriers to entry have been significantly lowered. In contrast, foreign‐owned banks have generally achieved much higher penetration in developing nations. We investigate the extent to which these differences may be related to bank efficiency concerns by reviewing and critiquing over 100 studies that compare bank efficiencies across nations. The studies are in three distinct categories: (1) comparisons of bank efficiencies in different nations based on the use of a common efficient frontier, (2) comparisons of bank efficiencies in different nations using nation‐specific frontiers, and (3) comparisons of efficiencies of foreign‐owned versus domestically owned banks within the same nation using the same nation‐specific frontier. The research—particularly the findings in the third category—is generally consistent with the hypothesis that efficiency differences help to explain the consolidation patterns. The efficiency disadvantages of foreign‐owned banks relative to domestically owned banks tend to outweigh the efficiency advantages in developed nations on average, and this situation is generally reversed in developing nations, with notable exceptions to both findings. We also stress the need for further research in this area.     

Bank efficiency in emerging Asian countries

The paper examines the relationships between market concentration, bank competition and X-efficiency in banking across six emerging Asian countries—Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam—over the period 2005–12. Market concentration has a positive effect on X-efficiency, whereas competition has a negative effect on X-efficiency. Moreover, bank size and gross domestic product growth have positive influences on X-efficiency whereas liquidity risk is negatively related to X-efficiency. In addition, the study has important policy implications for governments and banks with respect to increasing X-efficiency of banking.