Bank risk,competition and bank connectedness with firms: A literature review

The outbreak of the 2007–2009 financial crisis and of the European sovereign debt crisis again raised questions about the vulnerability and the behaviour of banking institutions. The unconventional monetary policies that followed have flattened the yield curve and created a low interest rates environment. This can give rise to risk-taking behaviour from banks and can therefore undermine the stability of the banking system with negative impact of the credit supply, corporate investment and real economy. This article proposes a literature review on the main determinants of bank lending and risk-taking decisions, going through the competition in the banking market, the bank connectedness with firms and the role of monetary and banking authorities. The systemic risk concept is also discussed as well as its drivers and potential measures that should be monitored by prudential authorities in order to preserve financial stability.     

Corporate governance and the insolvency risk of financial institutions

We investigate whether shareholder-friendliness of corporate governance mechanisms is related to the insolvency risk of financial institutions. Using a large sample of U.S. financial institutions over the period 2005–2010, we find that corporate governance is positively related to the insolvency risk of financial institutions as proxied by Merton’s distance to default measure and credit default swap (CDS) spread. We also find that “stronger” corporate governance increases insolvency risk relatively more for larger financial institutions and during the period of the financial crisis. Lastly, our results suggest that shareholder-friendliness of corporate governance mechanisms is viewed unfavorably in the bond market.     

经济新常态背景下中国商业银行内生性效率变化及分解

经济新常态背景下,如何积极推动银行业转型发展,为银行业发展注入持久内生动力,是中国商业银行目前亟待解决的重要问题。本文使用多方向效率分析方法 (MEA) 内生性评价了2004-2015年114家中国商业银行的整体效率,并进一步分析了各投入、产出指标的个体效率。研究结果发现,非利息收入不足和不良贷款过高是中国银行业低效率的主要原因;城市商业银行的整体效率低于国有商业银行和股份制商业银行,但在金融服务创新方面具有更高的改善潜力。本文还将传统的方向性距离函数 (DDF) 与MEA方法进行比较,发现DDF方法可能会高估银行效率,而MEA方法更具有参考价值。     

Venture capital certification of small and medium-sized enterprises towards banks: evidence from China

Through a proprietary dataset of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on China's National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), we examine the impact of venture capital (VC) backup on access to bank loans by SMEs. We find that VC backup can help SMEs obtain more bank loans under better conditions and significantly relieve their financing constraint. This is especially meaningful for private SMEs, those in high-tech, in regions of less-developed banking industry, or with lower quality accounting information. This study may have policy implications as a pilot ‘combined debt-equity financing’ discussion in the context of the largest bank-based economy.     

Employee representation and financial leverage

We analyze how direct employee voice affects financial leverage. German law mandates that firms’ supervisory boards consist of an equal number of employees’ and owners’ representatives. This requirement, however, applies only to firms with more than two thousand domestic employees. We exploit this discontinuity and the law’s introduction in 1976 for identification and find that direct employee power increases financial leverage. This is explained by a supply side effect: as banks’ interests are similar to those of employees, higher employee power reduces agency conflicts with debt providers, leading to better financing conditions. These findings reveal a novel mechanism of direct employee influence.     

我国商业银行x效率的影响因素分析

打开银行经营管理的“黑匣”,探讨影响x效率的各种因素,对银行改善经营管理水平、正确评估自身经营管理能力具有十分重要的意义。笔者通过研究发现,增加自有资本、提高资源配置能力、改善资产质量、提高员工受教育程度、优化年龄结构、减少经营管理费用等有利于提高银行的x效率。此外,良好的宏观经济环境也能促进银行x效率的提高。     

区域竞争与商业银行的盈余质量——基于我国商业银行的经验证据

本文运用2002-2014年间我国商业银行的数据,实证检验了银行业区域竞争程度对商业银行盈余质量的影响。研究结果显示,商业银行的区域竞争程度越高,银行的盈余质量水平越低。进一步,从银行规模和上市情况来看,随着竞争的加剧,规模较小的商业银行以及非上市的商业银行更倾向于进行盈余管理。同时,区域竞争对商业银行盈余质量的负向影响在由小所进行审计的银行中更加显著。本文的研究不仅丰富了商业银行盈余质量的影响因素及银行竞争的经济后果等方面的文献,还能在一定程度上深化利益相关者对我国商业银行盈余质量的认识。     

资本质量会影响银行贷款行为吗？

本文以中国2004-2015年141家商业银行数据为样本,研究了资本质量对银行贷款行为的影响,据此检验资本监管制度的有效性。研究结果显示:(1)资本充足率对银行贷款发放起到抑制作用,而核心资本充足率激励银行发放贷款,两者的影响效应在金融危机时期增强,但在Basel III监管预期时期减弱;杠杆率仅在Basel III 监管预期时期,才逐渐提高银行发放贷款的审慎程度;(2)在贷款结构方面,与公司贷款相比较,个人贷款增速对资本质量的反映程度更为敏感;杠杆率可以有效地支持银行在金融危机时期发放公司贷款;(3)在典型行业贷款方面,核心资本充足率高的银行,房地产业贷款增速较低而制造业贷款增速较高,但这一偏好在金融危机时期和Basel III监管预期时期有所降低。     

Constructing the Monetary Conditions Index for China

How can we fit different monetary transmission channels together to understand the effect of China’s monetary policy? This paper focuses on China’s monetary conditions and aggregate demand in terms of the monetary conditions index (MCI), which has been widely used as an important indicator for central banks, financial institutions, and scholars. To construct an MCI in the context of China over 1987Q1–2010Q2, we consider three channels through which monetary conditions might influence aggregate demand: the primary lending rate, the real effective exchange rate, and the bank credit. The weights of the component variables are obtained by estimating both the IS equation and the vector autoregressive model (VAR), which yield somewhat similar results. Further empirical tests show that the MCIs we derived contain useful information about future output growth and inflation in China over the short and medium term. From a historical perspective, the MCI we derived is more informative than individual monetary variables for the understanding of the development of China’s monetary conditions between 1987 and 2010.     

Interdependent bank runs under a collapsing fixed exchange rate regime

This paper provides a framework for simultaneous multiple bank runs in a country experiencing a currency crisis. The correlation of bank runs increases as the proportion of debts from foreign creditors (indexed to the dollar) to domestic creditors (indexed to the domestic currency) increases. Moreover, when the share of dollar debt is sufficiently high, this interlinkage is perfect; that is, runs occur in all banks or not at all. Consequently, a situation exists where even a solvent bank cannot borrow in the interbank market. These findings imply that as the domestic banking sector becomes increasingly dependent on dollar debt, there is a heightened requirement for dollar reserves and a lender-of-last-resort facility.