LIBOR as a Keynesian Beauty Contest: A Process of Endogenous Deception

This paper uses the Keynesian Beauty Contest as a theoretical framework to analyse the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) fixing mechanism, where the actual money market rate is seen as a fundamental value towards which the LIBOR should aim. By treating the LIBOR as the outcome of a particular kind of p-beauty contest game, in which players (LIBOR banks) are guided by higher order beliefs, a process is created whereby they are not solely dependent on their own incentives and constraints. Instead, potential deception is generated endogenously though the fixing process itself, resulting in systematic deviations of the LIBOR from its fundamental value.     

Testing uncovered interest rate parity using LIBOR

We test uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) using London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR) interest rates for a wide range of maturities. In contrast to other markets, LIBOR markets have minimal frictions. Whereas most previous studies reject UIP, we find that UIP holds for several short-term LIBOR maturities using block bootstrap panel unit root tests suggested by Palm et al. (2011) and cointegration techniques by Westerlund (2007). Furthermore, the estimation results suggest that the speed of adjustment to the long-run equilibrium marginally differs across the maturity of the underlying instrument, thus supporting the efficient market hypothesis.     

Synchronisation and staggering of interest rate change by UK financial services firms

This study examines the frequency and form of deposit account interest rate change. Specifically the question of whether deposit interest rate change is synchronised with other banks or staggered at periodic intervals is addressed. Overall, evidence consistent with individual banks changing deposit interest rates in a staggered manner is recorded. Further larger banks are seen to change interest rates in a more synchronised manner than smaller banks. Lastly, when banks offer multiple deposit accounts, these products' interest rates are generally changed simultaneously by individual banks. These findings extend the current understanding of deposit interest rate change, and indicate that UK deposit interest rate setting is relatively rigid.     

Extreme daily changes in U.S. Dollar London inter-bank offer rates

The likelihood of extreme daily changes in London Interbank Offer rates are estimated using the peaks-over-threshold method developed from extreme value theory. Value at risk and expected shortfall for high quantiles are produced for the left and right tails of the distributions for each maturity. The Generalized Pareto distribution of the peaks-over-threshold method is found to be unsuitable for modeling exceedances above a high threshold for samples of simple daily changes in the LIBOR. When the series are transformed to logarithmic daily changes, extreme value analysis proceeds smoothly and yields useful information about the relative frequency or magnitudes of extreme events. The main consequence of this is that the risk statistics associated with a given change in the LIBOR depend on the initial rate level; at higher (lower) interest rates, changes of a given size are more (less) likely to occur.     

The comparative efficiency performance of small and large US commercial banks in the pre- and post-deregulation eras

The purposes of this paper are twofold: first, to employ a flexible non-parametric approach to contrast the productive efficiency of a sample of small and large banks in order to examine the relationship between size and productive performance in the banking industry. Second, to investigate whether the relative efficiency performance of small and large banks has changed following the changes in the banking environment in the 1980s and to contrast the rate of technological change achieved by these two groups of banks over this time period. The findings based on group-specific frontiers suggest that in the pre-deregulation environment small banks were more efficient than the large banks while in the deregulated environment small and large banks were equally efficient. Moreover, the dispersion in the efficiency measures of the small banks is found to have increased substantially while that of the large banks changed little over the sample period.     

Fixed Exchange Rates and Banking Crises: When Does the Former Prevent the Latter?

Because monetary policy is constrained in fixed exchange rate regimes, banks should expect fewer money‐financed bailouts and therefore manage their risks more carefully when exchange rates are fixed than when they are flexible. It follows that we should observe fewer banking crises in countries with formal currency pegs. The 1990s however are littered with occurrences of banking crises in countries with fixed exchange rates. This paper asks whether banks in those countries could have adopted excess risk expecting money‐financed bailouts or whether their pegs discouraged such moral hazard‐type risks.     

Surplus liquidity,central bank losses and the use of reserve requirements in emerging markets

Since the turn of the millennium, stocks of foreign reserves held by central banks in many emerging markets and developing countries have exceeded currency in circulation. To steer money market rates, these central banks have been absorbing liquidity from, rather than providing it to, the banking sector in their regular monetary policy operations. When interest rates in countries with major reserve currencies are low, the yield on foreign reserves is low. A higher interest rate on liquidity‐absorbing operations may expose central banks to losses. Although a central bank is not a profit‐maximizing institution, central bank losses can undermine the independence of the central bank. Using data for a large panel of central banks, this paper provides some evidence that central banks tend to apply low‐remunerated reserve requirements when profitability is at stake.     

Determinants of Interest Rate Pass-through for Emerging Market Economies: The Role of Financial Market Structure

It is essential for central banks to assess whether or not the pass-through from monetary policy rates to credit and deposit interest rates is complete in order to ensure price stability. In this article, we analyze interest rate pass-through process for emerging market economies. Since emerging market countries lack large panel data sets that are typically available for developed countries, it is hard to analyze the determinants of pass-through coefficients for emerging market countries. To overcome the data issue, we developed a country selection procedure that minimizes heterogeneity among the countries included in the analysis. Our findings indicate that banking sectors?? competition plays a more important role for emerging market countries than their developed counterparts.     

Why are interest spreads so high in Uganda?

Using international comparisons and a unique bank-level dataset on the Ugandan banking system over the period 1999 to 2005, we explore the factors behind consistently high interest rate spreads and margins. International comparisons show that the small size of Ugandan banks, persistently high T-Bill rates and institutional deficiencies explain large proportions of the high Ugandan interest rate margins. The Ugandan bank panel confirms the importance of macroeconomic factors, such as high inflation, high T-Bill rates and exchange rate appreciation. There is also evidence for the small market place and high costs of doing business explaining persistently high spreads and margins; smaller banks and banks targeting the low end of the market incur higher costs and therefore higher margins. Spreads and margins also vary significantly with the sectoral loan portfolio composition of banks, while there is little evidence for foreign bank entry, privatization or changes in market structure explaining variation in spreads or margins over time.     

中国商业银行利率风险的实证分析

运用计量经济学方法估计中国商业银行资产和负债的平均成熟期,以检验中国商业银行的净利息收入是否受利率变动的影响。实证分析的主要结论是,目前中国商业银行的利率风险暴露水平较高,其中中等商业银行的利率风险暴露水平比大型商业银行更高。所以,大力加强利率风险管理体系的建设,提高利率风险管理水平是中国商业银行当前面临的迫切任务之一。     

The dynamic of bank lending channel: Basel regulatory constraint

This article analyzes the impact of monetary policy on bank behavior under the Basel I regulatory framework using a dynamic model with monopolistic competition. There are two main objectives. First, we theoretically predict the dynamic model of bank lending channels under the Basel I regulatory constraint. Second, we empirically analyze the situation in Malaysia by using panel data on 23 commercial banks in the period of 1999 to 2007 by using General Method of Moments. The empirical results show that market rates on loans and policy rates are important influences on average rates of banks' loans. This has an implication that Malaysian banks have the power to set their own prices on loans as they are influenced by the change in the market rate and policy rate. We also have proven that the previous period of spread risk weighted loans and securities is statistically significant and correlated with the average loan rate, whereas risk weighted securities is also statistically significant and correlated with the average time deposit rate in both periods. This shows that the role of risk-weighted assets under the Basel I is important in influencing the optimal rates on loans and time deposits.     

Lenders on the storm of wholesale funding shocks: saved by the central bank?

We provide empirical evidence on banks’ responses to shocks in the wholesale funding market, using data of 181 euro area banks over the period from August 2007 to June 2013. Responses to funding liquidity shocks for both banks’ lending volumes and loan rates, to households and corporates, are analysed in a panel VAR framework. We thereby distinguish banks by country, extent of Eurosystem borrowing, bank size and capitalization. The results show that shocks in the securities and interbank markets have significant effects on loan rates and credit supply, particularly of banks in stressed countries of the periphery. The results also suggest that central bank liquidity has mitigated this effect on lending volumes. Lending to nonfinancial corporations is more sensitive to wholesale funding shocks than lending to households. Lending volumes of large banks that are typically more dependent on wholesale funding and banks with large exposure to sovereign bonds show stronger responses to wholesale funding shocks.     

Asymmetric behavior of Australia's Big-4 banks in the mortgage market

This paper presents an alternative framework for modeling the behavior of banks in setting lending and/or saving rates. In a short-run dynamic model, we correct for deviations from the long-run path using three feedback coefficients capturing different disequilibria. This enables us to test for both amount and adjustment asymmetries by considering the size and direction of any deviations. We use this model to examine the relationship between the official cash rate (set by the Reserve Bank of Australia as a monetary policy tool) and the standard variable mortgage rates of Australian Big-4 banks using weekly data from 2001 to 2012. The evidence indicates both types of asymmetries along with synchronized rate-setting behavior. Overall, the banks immediately pass on 120% of any rate rise, but only 85% of any rate cut. Further, when mortgage rates are substantially above the equilibrium path, we find no significant attempt to lower rates, but faster adjustment when rates are below equilibrium values. This finding has important implications for the RBA's monetary policy transmission mechanism and the effectiveness of the expansionary versus contractionary policy.     

Interest rate pass through and asymmetries in retail deposit and lending rates: An analysis using data from Colombian banks

Using a sample of Colombian banks, we examine retail interest rate adjustment in response to changes in wholesale interest rates. Interest rate pass through running from wholesale to retail rates is found to be both partial and heterogeneous across banks. This suggests that the effectiveness of monetary policy is limited. Further investigation reveals that the behaviour of retail deposit rates appears consistent with collusive behaviour between banks insofar as interest rates are more rapidly adjusted downwards than upwards. In the case of retail lending rates, it appears that banks more rapidly reduce than increase rates. This suggests that expansionary monetary policy in Colombia may be relatively more effective than contractionary policy.     

Dual market competition and deposit rate setting in Islamic and conventional banks

This paper addresses the issue of competition in dual banking markets by analyzing the determinants of deposit rates in Islamic and conventional banks. Using a sample of 20 countries with dual banking systems over the 2000–2014 period, our results show significant differences in the drivers of Islamic and conventional banks' pricing behavior. Conventional banks with stronger market power set lower deposit rates but market power is not significant for Islamic banks. In predominantly Muslim environments, conventional banks set higher deposit rates and further higher when their market power is lower. Whereas conventional banks are influenced by the competitiveness of Islamic banks, Islamic banks are only affected by their peers in predominantly Muslim countries. Our findings have important implications regarding competition and bank stability in dual banking markets.     

Monetary policy and bank lending in a low interest rate environment: Diminishing effectiveness?

This paper analyses the effectiveness of monetary policy on bank lending in a low interest rate environment. Based on a sample of 108 large international banks, our empirical analysis suggests that monetary policy is less effective in stimulating bank lending growth when interest rates reach a very low level. This result holds after controlling for business and financial cycle conditions and different bank-specific characteristics such as liquidity, capitalisation, funding costs, bank risk and income diversification. We find that the impact of low rates on the profitability of banks’ traditional intermediation activity helps explain the subdued evolution of lending in the period 2010–14.     

Strategic default and optimal audit resources with costly state verification

I develop a model in which the ability to repay a loan is private information that can only be verified by the bank at some costs, which can be recovered from the borrower if it has reported untruthfully. The bank will optimize the resources it spends on this auditing of borrowers and the resulting equilibrium is then characterized. It is shown that in equilibrium, a significant fraction of companies default strategically, but most are captured via auditing. The failure rates of banks are also small. Finally extensions are discussed to include limited liability to banks and the partial recovery of auditing costs as well as punitive costs to borrowers.     

外汇储备、银行危机与政府政策

本文探讨了在实行固定或钉住汇率制度条件下,面对商业银行清偿能力危机时,政府是否应该救助的问题。经研究发现:在外汇储备充足时,当商业银行的不良资产较多,或该国的信贷市场处于不断发展与扩张的阶段,政府应该救助;在外汇储备不充足时,当该国的信贷市场处于不断发展与扩张的阶段,政府应该救助;当商业银行的不良资产较多时,政府是否救助视该国具体情况而定;当该国外债规模较大时,政府不应该提供救助。     

EXCHANGE RATE STABILISATION, LEARNING AND THE TAYLOR PRINCIPLE

The paper explores whether central banks can keep their interest rates independent from given foreign rates, and to what extent interest policies designed to stabilise nominal exchange rate changes can be applied instead of, or in addition to, the traditional interest rate response to inflation gaps. This modification of a Taylor Rule is analysed in a simple macro model with some New Keynesian features. Information is imperfect; agents cannot build rational expectations but try to learn 'true' market relations. Results show that the Taylor Principle can be generalised in an open economy with flexible exchange rates.     

Impact of interest rates on Islamic and conventional banks: the case of Turkey

Identifying the impact of the interest rates upon Islamic banks is a key to understand the contribution of such institutions to the financial stability, designing monetary policies and devising a proper risk management applicable to these institutions. This article analyses and investigates the impact of interest rate shock upon the deposits and loans held by the conventional and Islamic banks with particular reference to the period between December 2005 and July 2009 based on Vector Error Correction (VEC) methodology. It is theoretically expected that the Islamic banks, relying on interest-free banking, shall not be affected by the interest rates; however, in concurrence with the previous studies, the article finds that the Islamic banks in Turkey are visibly influenced by interest rates.