Symposium on Financial Institutions

Financial institutions are the topic of the 2003 Eastern Finance Association Symposium. The symposium papers illustrate the importance of bank research for improving our understanding of both financial and nonfinancial firms. Benston begins the symposium with an overview of banking. Three papers consider different aspects of banks' commercial lending: Frame, Padhi, and Woosley; Gottesman and Roberts; and Gonas, Highfield, and Mullineaux. Next, DeYoung and Rice analyze increases in bank's increased noninterest income. Finally, two papers illustrate the benefits of using banking data: Hasan and Wall, in examining the management of financial reporting, and Sfiridis and Daniels, in examining the implications of different organizational forms.     

The Consumption–Income Ratio,Entrepreneurial Risk,and the U.S. Stock Market

The owners of small noncorporate businesses face substantial and largely uninsurable entrepreneurial risk. They are also an important group of stock owners. This paper explores the role of entrepreneurial risk in explaining time variation in expected U.S. stock returns in the period 1952–2010. It proposes an entrepreneurial distress factor that is based on a cointegrating relationship between aggregate consumption and income from proprietary and nonproprietary wealth. This factor, referred to here as the cpy residual, signals when entrepreneurial income is low in relation to aggregate consumption and other forms of income in the economy. It is highly correlated with cross‐sectional measures of idiosyncratic entrepreneurial and default risk, and it has considerable forecasting power for the expected equity premium. However, the correlation between cpy and the stock market started to decline at the beginning of the 1980s. The decline in this correlation can be associated with increased stock market participation and with the progress of U.S. state‐level bank deregulation. This pattern is consistent with the view that entrepreneurial risk became more easily diversifiable in the wake of U.S. state‐level bank deregulation.     

我国商业银行业务多元化对收益和风险的影响

不同于以往研究,文章将15家上市银行按照平均资产规模大小分成大规模银行、中等规模银行、小规模银行采用2000年-2011年的数据建立面板数据模型,分析我国商业银行非利息收入及其组成部分占营业收入比重的变化对银行收益和风险的影响。结果表明,非利息收入占比的提高对银行的收益有正效应,且这种效应在小规模银行中更为明显。非利息收入占比与银行风险的关系总体并不显著,但对大规模银行来说有一定的降低风险效应。手续费及佣金收入占比的提高会增加银行的收益并降低风险。     

Financial supervision regimes and bank efficiency: International evidence

There exists a lively debate as for the appropriate architecture of the financial supervision regime, with a long list of theoretical advantages and disadvantages associated with each one of its key dimensions. The present study investigates whether and how bank profit efficiency is influenced by the central bank’s involvement in financial supervision, the unification of financial authorities, and the independence of the central bank. The results show that efficiency decreases as the number of the financial sectors that are supervised by the central bank increases. Additionally, banks operating in countries with greater unification of supervisory authorities are less profit efficient. Finally, central bank independence has a negative impact on bank profit efficiency.     

First Financial Restructuring and operating efficiency: Evidence from Taiwanese commercial banks

This paper investigates the effect of the “First Financial Restructuring” (FFR) on the operating efficiency of commercial banks in Taiwan. Applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) to operations data for 40 commercial banks over the 6-year period 2000–2005, we find that while the banks have lower operating efficiency on average during the reform period (2002–2003) compared to the pre-reform period (2000–2001), improved operating efficiency is reflected in the post-reform period (2004–2005). Our results remain unchanged even after controlling for the non-performing loan ratio, capital adequacy ratio, bank ownership, size, and GDP growth rate. These results suggest that the improved efficiency in the post-reform period is possibly due to enhanced banking and risk management practices and benefits obtained from compliance with the FFR.     

Performance and Merton-type default risk of listed banks in the EU: A panel VAR approach

This paper provides empirical evidence that sheds new light into the dynamic interactions between risk and efficiency, a highly debated issue. First, we estimate three alternative measures of bank performance, by employing a directional distance function framework, along with a cost frontier and a profit function. As a second step, we calculate a Merton-type bank default risk. Then, we employ a panel VAR analysis, which allows the examination of the underlying relationships between efficiency and risk without applying any a priori restrictions. Most evidence shows that the effect of a one standard deviation shock of the distance to default on inefficiency is negative and substantial. There is some evidence of a reverse causation. As part of a sensitivity analysis, we extent our study to investigate the relationship between efficiency and default risk for banks with different types of ownership structures and across financial systems with different levels of development.     

CEO Bonus Compensation and Bank Default Risk: Evidence from the U.S. and Europe

We investigate the link between the incentive mechanisms embedded in CEO cash bonuses and the riskiness of banks. For a sample of U.S. and European banks, we employ the Merton distance to default model to show that increases in CEO cash bonuses lower the default risk of a bank. However, we find no evidence of cash bonuses exerting a risk‐reducing effect when banks are financially distressed or when banks operate under weak bank regulatory regimes. Our results link bonus compensation in banking to financial stability and caution that attempts to regulate bonus pay need to tailor CEO incentives to the riskiness of banks and to regulatory regimes.     

The Announcement Effects of U.S. versus non‐U.S. Bank Mergers: Do They Differ?

Non‐U.S. bank mergers are becoming an increasingly important part of the worldwide economic landscape. Are the market reactions to non‐U.S. bank mergers similar to the reaction in the United States? I address this question by examining abnormal returns of publicly traded partners on the announcement of forty‐one non‐U.S. bank mergers and comparing the returns with a U.S. control group. I find acquirers in non‐U.S. domestic bank mergers earn more and non‐U.S. targets earn less than their U.S. counterparts. However, for the subset of mergers in countries with relatively well‐developed stock markets, I find that partners earn similar returns.     

THE USE OF ACQUISITIONS AND JOINT VENTURES BY U.S. BANKS EXPANDING ABROAD

We examine international bank expansions, which are classified as banking (scale related) or nonbanking (complementary) moves into developed or developing markets. The market responds favorably to expansions through joint ventures by U.S. banks, and insignificantly to expansions through acquisitions. Accounting and operating performances (for joint venture banks) and long‐period holding returns (for acquisitions) show improvement in the two years following the announcement. Systematic risk declines for the sample overall, for acquisitions, and for expansions into developing countries. In general, scale or developing expansions are better pursued through acquisitions, whereas complementary or developed expansions are best pursued through joint ventures.     

Credit risk transfer activities and systemic risk: How banks became less risky individually but posed greater risks to the financial system at the same time

A main cause of the crisis of 2007-2009 is the various ways through which banks have transferred credit risk in the financial system. We study the systematic risk of banks before the crisis, using two samples of banks respectively trading Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and issuing Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs). After their first usage of either risk transfer method, the share price beta of these banks increases significantly. This suggests the market anticipated the risks arising from these methods, long before the crisis. We additionally separate this beta effect into a volatility and a market correlation component. Quite strikingly, this decomposition shows that the increase in the beta is solely due to an increase in banks’ correlations. Thus, while banks may have shed their individual credit risk, they actually posed greater systemic risk. This creates a challenge for financial regulation, which has typically focused on individual institutions.     

Financial Statements as Monitoring Mechanisms: Evidence from Small Commercial Loans

Using a data set that records banks’ ongoing requests of information from small commercial borrowers, we examine when banks use financial statements to monitor borrowers after loan origination. We find that banks request financial statements for half the loans and this variation is related to borrower credit risk, relationship length, collateral, and the provision of business tax returns, but in complex ways. The relation between borrower risk and financial statement requests has an inverted U‐shape; and tax returns can be both substitutes and complements to financial statements, conditional on borrower characteristics and the degree of bank–borrower information asymmetry. Frequent financial reporting is used to monitor collateral, but only for non–real estate loans and only when the collateral is easily accessible to lenders. Collectively, our results provide novel evidence of a fundamental information demand for financial reporting in monitoring small commercial borrowers and a specific channel through which banks fulfill their role as delegated monitors.     

国内金融市场完全开放对国有商业银行的影响

按照入世协定书中的开放时间表,我国在入世5年后也即2006年底将实行金融业的全面开放。本文认为,我国金融市场完全开放将对国内商业银行带来深远影响:一是在政策层面,经济政策、金融政策、配套政策的进一步开放将使金融业的进入门槛降低,从而带来竞争主体的多元和竞争的更加市场化;二是在市场层面,客户的金融知识的普及和客户的议价能力的提高造成客户对银行需求也在不断提高;三是在竞争层面上,竞争主体、竞争模式和竞争手段的改变将使银行业面临更为复杂的竞争局面。为应对上述影响,国有商业银行应根据自身优势,扬长避短,根据不同情况,综合运用不同战略,以期达到持续发展的目标。     

国内金融市场完全开放对国有商业银行的影响

按照入世协定书中的开放时问表，我国在入世5年后也即2006年底将实行金融业的全面开放。本文认为，我国金融市场完全开放将对国内商业银行带来深远影响：一是在政策层面，经济政策、金融政策、配套政策的进一步开放将使金融业的进入门槛降低，从而带来竞争主体的多元和竞争的更加市场化；二是在市场层面，客户的金融知识的普及和客户的议价能力的提高造成客户对银行需求也在不断提高；三是在竞争层面上，竞争主体、竞争模式和竞争手段的改变将使银行业面临更为复杂的竞争局面。为应对上述影响，国有商业银行应根据自身优势，扬长避短，根据不同情况，综合运用不同战略，以期达到持续发展的目标。     

Foreign Banks: Trends and Impact

Over the past two decades, foreign banks have become much more important in domestic financial intermediation, heightening the need to understand their behavior. We introduce a new, comprehensive database, made publicly available, on bank ownership (including the home country of foreign banks) for 5,324 banks in 137 countries over the period 1995–2009. We document large increases in foreign bank presence in many countries, but with substantial heterogeneity in terms of host and banks’ home countries, bilateral investment patterns, and bank characteristics. In terms of impact, we document that the relation between private credit and foreign bank presence importantly depends on host country and banks’ characteristics. Specifically, foreign banks only seem to have a negative impact on credit in low‐income countries, in countries where they have a limited market share, where enforcing contracts is costly and where credit information is limited available, and when they come from distant home countries. This shows that accounting for heterogeneity, including bilateral ownership, is crucial to better understand the implications of foreign bank ownership.     

Financial freedom and bank efficiency: Evidence from the European Union

This paper investigates the dynamics between the financial freedom counterparts of the economic freedom index drawn from the Heritage Foundation database and bank efficiency levels. We rely on a large sample of commercial banks operating in the 27 European Union member states over the 2000s. After estimating bank-specific efficiency scores using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we develop a truncated regression model combined with bootstrapped confidence intervals to test our main hypotheses. Results suggest that the higher the degree of an economy’s financial freedom, the higher the benefits for banks in terms of cost advantages and overall efficiency. Our results also show that the effects of financial freedom on bank efficiency tend to be more pronounced in countries with freer political systems in which governments formulate and implement sound policies and higher quality governance.     

我国商业银行理财业务发展研究

近年来,随着我国金融体制改革的快速推进,个人理财业务逐渐成为银行业务发展的新方向和竞争焦点所在。虽然经过几年的发展,我国商业银行的个人理财业务已取得一定成绩,但其发展过程中还存在着机制流程以及后台支持体系的欠缺,大量高素质理财人才的缺乏等问题。本文提出了发展我国商业银行个人理财业务的对策建议。     

The Impact of SFAS No. 114 on the Linear Information Dynamic for Commercial Banks

Increase (decrease) in loan loss provisions would decrease (increases) bank earnings, but increase (decreases) regulatory capital. Previous studies have separately documented earnings and capital management behavior via loan loss provisions by commercial banks. However, it is difficult to isolate a bank's demand for increasing earnings from its demand for regulatory capital because earnings is a source of capital. Based on the objective bank function, this study investigates the impact of SFAS No. 114 on the information content of loan loss provisions in relation to both earnings quality and capital adequacy in a linear information dynamic framework. Test results show that the association between market value with loan loss provisions became significantly stronger for commercial banks in the post- than in the pre-adoption period. As a result, SFAS No. 114 is also found to positively affect the association of market value with both bank earnings and regulatory capital through the clean surplus relation because of the higher value relevance of loan loss provisions. The findings thus provide empirical evidence that SFAS No. 114 has significantly complemented banking regulations in enhancing (reducing) the (dispersion from the) accounting measurement construct of loan loss provisions.     

What's Special About Banks?

I delineate six aspects of how banks have been “special” (although not unique) and then consider whether and to what extent these attributes are still relevant. These include efficiently produced products, importance for the development and growth of economies, international scope, role in economic instability and the conduct of monetary policy, early regulation by governments, and source of data for academic researchers and institutions. Despite changes in the environment and in the ways in which financial services are provided, banks still are special. However, their specialness for public policy concerns is now limited to frauds and deposit insurance. I suggest ways in which these concerns can be dealt with efficiently.     

论商业银行供应链金融的风险防范

供应链理论将企业的经营看做是一个价值增值的过程,主张上下游企业间的合作.而供应链金融是指对一个产业供应链中的单个企业或上下游多个企业提供全面的金融服务,以促进供应链核心企业及上下游配套企业"产-供-销"链条的稳固和流转顺畅,并通过金融资本与实业经济的协作,构筑商业银行、企业和商品供应链互利共存、持续发展的产业生态,以有效解决中小企业融资难的问题.本文在对商业银行供应链金融面临的风险和表现形式进行分析的基础上,对如何防范供应链金融风险提出了具体的方法及应对措施,以期达到减少和防范风险,从而实现商业银行可持续发展的目的.