Measuring Moral Hazard: the Impact of Systemic Risk on Bank Loan Portfolios Yu Shan

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Measuring Moral Hazard: the Impact of Systemic Risk on Bank Loan Portfolios Yu Shan Measuring Moral Hazard: The Impact of Systemic Risk on Bank Loan Portfolios Yu Shan Abstract This paper examines the endogenous adjustments in the risk of bank’s loan portfolio in response to systemic risk levels. In particular, I consider whether individual banks increase or decrease their loan portfolio risk when systemic risk levels vary. I examine the tightness of loan covenants and loan spreads to determine bank responses to systemic risk at microlevel (Δ퐶표푉푎푅) and macrolevel (CATFIN). I find that banks require tighter loan covenants and higher loan spreads following high Δ퐶표푉푎푅 and high CATFIN, indicating that banks increase loan portfolio risk when microlevel and macrolevel systemic risks are high. These are consistent with moral hazard hypothesis. I also find that loan spreads are less sensitive to Δ퐶표푉푎푅 after the financial crisis, suggesting weaker moral hazard by systemic important banks after the crisis. I also find that loan covenants and loan spreads are less sensitive to Δ퐶표푉푎푅 for those TARP recipients during periods of recession, or periods when CATFIN exceeds the early warning threshold. This suggests lower loan portfolio risk and weaker moral hazard effects, and indicates that systemic important banks adjust the risk of their loans in order to pull back from the brink of delinquency and bailout. 1. Introduction Banks are special because they are critically important to the capital allocation process inherent in a well- functioning financial system. Individual bank behavior has systemic implications on overall macroeconomic conditions. Concerns about adverse macroeconomic consequences justify the vast array of regulatory policies and governmental safety nets designed to bail out banking systems in crisis. However, it is well known that while these policies may reduce the severity of macroeconomic downturns during financial crises, they induce banks to engage in strategic behavior that results in moral hazard risk. In this paper, I examine the role of bank-level systemic risk on the basic characteristics of the loan portfolio. In particular, I examine bank responses to moral hazard temptations to measure their responses as reflected in their loan portfolios. I focus on two fundamental bank choice variables: loan risk exposure and the tightness of loan covenants. How does the bank’s systemic risk impact the portfolio characteristics of the bank’s loan portfolio? There are two possible channels. The first is the moral hazard channel, which implies that TBTF safety nets and subsidies encourage bank risk taking behavior. Failures of systemically important banks may cause significant disruptions to the financial system and economic activity. Therefore, upon a financial crisis, governments usually don’t have many options but to reach out to bail out systemically important banks to recover lending activities and restore economic growth. Although governments wouldn’t like to make any explicit 1 commitment to these actions to prevent moral hazard, there still exists an expectation of implicit public guarantee among banks and banks’ creditors. The expectation of “implicit public guarantee” weakens market discipline (Acharya, Anginer, and Warburton, 2016) and may induce systemically important banks to shift their lending toward higher-risk, higher-return projects. Expectation of bailout also incentivizes borrowers to choose banks with higher bailout expectations because they are perceived as safer and are more able to provide stable liquidity during economic downturn when liquidity is scarce. Berger and Roman (2015) suggest that because TARP banks gained market share and market power because they are perceived as safer and are less likely to fail, and are associated with larger loan or deposit growth after TARP. Koetter and Noth (2015) find that higher bailout expectations for the unsupported banks increase loan rates, reduce deposit rates. Overall, the moral hazard channel indicates that banks with higher bailout expectation will shift their lending to riskier loans, and therefore ask for higher loans spread and set tighter covenants. The second channel is the systemic risk response channel. The explicit and implicit cost of funds from government support may be high. First, the injected preferred equity has priority over common equity, which may amplify the losses of common equity holders in the event of failure, resulting in falls in the value of common equity, and increasing the difficulty of raising equity (Berge, Roman and Sedunov, 2016). Berger and Roman (2015) suggest that the TARP funds may be relatively expensive. If banks’ shareholders are concerned about the negative implications of bailouts, they may adjust the risk of their loans in order to pull back from the brink of delinquency and bailout. Second, the supported banks may have to undertake certain social welfare responsibilities through lending expansion, which may not be an equilibrium choice from shareholders’ perspective. The initial objective of bailouts is to stabilize the financial system and macroeconomy, but public also often expect the bailed-out banks may expand their lending. However, during financial crisis, safe and profitable projects are very rare and expanding lending in this circumstances may be at shareholders’ best interest. Due to all these potential costs, systemically risk banks may try to avoid bailouts by reducing the bank’s systemic risk exposure. This could take the form of adjustments to the risk of the bank’s loan risk. I denote this the systemic risk response channel1. 1 Another channel that is not captured in this paper but could be very important in the future is the systemic risk pricing channel. The systemic risk pricing channel implies that as regulations have imposed greater regulatory costs, stricter security, and higher disciplinary pressure on systemically important banks, the opportunity for moral hazard risk shifting may be reduced. For example, G-SIBs are subject to higher capital buffer requirement, Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) standard, resolvability requirement, and higher supervisory expectations. With all these higher regulatory requirements, systemically important banks are at a competitive disadvantage relative to other banks, so they have to charge higher loan spreads and require tighter covenants per unit of borrower risk in order to reduce the bank’s systemic risk levels. 2 Under the moral hazard channel, systemically risky banks would have incentives to increase the risk of their loans as the likelihood of bailout increases. In contrast, under the systemic risk response channel, systemically risky banks would reduce their risk exposures in order to reduce the likelihood that their bank would require a bailout. In this paper, I examine the risk characteristics of the bank loans using loan spreads and covenant tightness. That is, I relate overall systemic risk and each bank’s microlevel systemic risk exposure to the bank loan risk and find support for the moral hazard hypothesis. In this paper, I test these hypotheses using two complementary measures of systemic risk. I consider overall systemic risk, as well as microlevel systemic risk imposed by each individual bank. To measure the macro- level aggregate systemic risk, I utilize CATFIN (Allen, Bali and Tang (2012)). This is a cross-sectional measure that identifies the overall level of systemic risk in the financial system at each point in time. To measure the micro-level systemic risk, I utilize Δ퐶표푉푎푅 (see Adrian and Brunnermeier (2016)) to determine the impact of an individual bank’s insolvency on overall systemic risk. The greater the contribution of an individual bank’s insolvency to market-wide systemic risk, the greater the individual bank’s imposition of systemic risk onto the macroeconomy. First, I look at how the two systemic risks individually and jointly determine the loan spread and covenant strictness. Systemically risky banks increase their loan spreads as well as their covenant tightness as the risk of their loans increases. My empirical results first indicate that microlevel systemic risk is positively associated with loan spread and covenant tightness when financial system and macroeconomy are in health states. This is consistent with moral hazard hypothesis. With the expectation of bailout, systemically important banks shift their lending towards riskier loans. I also find that loan spread is positively associated with the likelihood of bailout, as measured by the overall systemic risk levels (CATFIN), indicating that banks generally increase their risk taking when the overall systemic risk is high. However, I also find that both loan spread and covenant strictness are negatively associated with the interaction of microlevel and overall systemic risk. The results are similar if I replace the overall systemic risk with an early-warning dummy determined by the overall systemic risk. These results indicate that when systemic risk is system-wide, the systemic risk response effect dominates the moral hazard effect for systemically risky banks, who reduce their risk exposure by reducing the loan spreads and relaxing the strictness of covenants. That means, when the whole financial system is risky, for those banks who are more likely to be bailed out, instead of participating in more moral hazard activities, they are trying hard to reduce their risk-taking and pull back from the brink of delinquency and bailout. Then I conducted a diff-in-diff analysis to investigate how the relationship between bank risk taking and systemic
Recommended publications
  • Systemic Risk Through Securitization: the Result of Deregulation and Regulatory Failure
    Revised Feb. 9, 2009 Systemic Risk Through Securitization: The Result of Deregulation and Regulatory Failure by Patricia A. McCoy, * Andrey D. Pavlov, † and Susan M. Wachter ‡ Abstract This paper argues that private-label securitization without regulation is unsustainable. Without regulation, securitization allowed mortgage industry actors to gain fees and to put off risks. During the housing boom, the ability to pass off risk allowed lenders and securitizers to compete for market share by lowering their lending standards, which activated more borrowing. Lenders who did not join in the easing of lending standards were crowded out of the market. In theory, market controls in the form of risk pricing could have constrained heightened mortgage risk without additional regulation. But in reality, as the mortgages underlying securities became more exposed to growing default risk, investors did not receive higher rates of return. Artificially low risk premia caused the asset price of houses to go up, leading to an asset bubble and creating a breeding ground for market fraud. The consequences of lax lending were covered up and there was no immediate failure to discipline the markets. The market might have corrected this problem if investors had been able to express their negative views by short selling mortgage-backed securities, thereby allowing fundamental market value to be achieved. However, the one instrument that could have been used to short sell mortgage-backed securities – the credit default swap – was also infected with underpricing due to lack of minimum capital requirements and regulation to facilitate transparent pricing. As a result, there was no opportunity for short selling in the private-label securitization market.
    [Show full text]
  • Systemic Moral Hazard Beneath the Financial Crisis
    Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Law School Student Scholarship Seton Hall Law 5-1-2014 Systemic Moral Hazard Beneath The inF ancial Crisis Xiaoming Duan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship Recommended Citation Duan, Xiaoming, "Systemic Moral Hazard Beneath The inF ancial Crisis" (2014). Law School Student Scholarship. 460. https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship/460 The financial crisis in 2008 is the greatest economic recession since the "Great Depression of the 1930s." The federal government has pumped $700 billion dollars into the financial market to save the biggest banks from collapsing. 1 Five years after the event, stock markets are hitting new highs and well-healed.2 Investors are cheering for the recovery of the United States economy.3 It is important to investigate the root causes of this failure of the capital markets. Many have observed that the sudden collapse of the United States housing market and the increasing number of unqualified subprime mortgages are the main cause of this economic failure. 4 Regulatory responses and reforms were requested right after the crisis occurred, as in previous market upheavals where we asked ourselves how better regulation could have stopped the market catastrophe and prevented the next one. 5 I argue that there is an inherent and systematic moral hazard in our financial systems, where excessive risk-taking has been consistently allowed and even to some extent incentivized. Until these moral hazards are eradicated or cured, our financial system will always face the risk of another financial crisis. 6 In this essay, I will discuss two systematic moral hazards, namely the incentive to take excessive risk and the incentive to underestimate risk.
    [Show full text]
  • Systemic Risk in Global Banking: What Can Available
    BIS Working Papers No 376 Systemic Risks in Global Banking: What Can Available Data Tell Us and What More Data Are Needed? by Eugenio Cerutti, Stijn Claessens and Patrick McGuire Monetary and Economic Department April 2012 JEL classification: F21, F34, G15, G18, Y1 Keywords: Systemic risks, banking system, international, contagion, vulnerabilities BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS. This publication is available on the BIS website (www.bis.org). © Bank for International Settlements 2012. All rights reserved. Brief excerpts may be reproduced or translated provided the source is stated. ISSN 1020-0959 (print) ISSN 1682-7678 (online) Systemic Risks in Global Banking: What Can Available Data Tell Us and What More Data Are Needed? Eugenio Cerutti, Stijn Claessens and Patrick McGuire1 Abstract The recent financial crisis has shown how interconnected the financial world has become. Shocks in one location or asset class can have a sizable impact on the stability of institutions and markets around the world. But systemic risk analysis is severely hampered by the lack of consistent data that capture the international dimensions of finance. While currently available data can be used more effectively, supervisors and other agencies need more and better data to construct even rudimentary measures of risks in the international financial system.
    [Show full text]
  • A Framework for Assessing the Systemic Risk of Major Financial Institutions
    Finance and Economics Discussion Series Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C. A Framework for Assessing the Systemic Risk of Major Financial Institutions Xin Huang, Hao Zhou, and Haibin Zhu 2009-37 NOTE: Staff working papers in the Finance and Economics Discussion Series (FEDS) are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. The analysis and conclusions set forth are those of the authors and do not indicate concurrence by other members of the research staff or the Board of Governors. References in publications to the Finance and Economics Discussion Series (other than acknowledgement) should be cleared with the author(s) to protect the tentative character of these papers. A framework for assessing the systemic risk of major financial insti- tutions† a, b c Xin Huang ∗, Hao Zhou and Haibin Zhu aDepartment of Economics, University of Oklahoma bRisk Analysis Section, Federal Reserve Board cBank for International Settlements This version: May 2009 Abstract In this paper we propose a framework for measuring and stress testing the systemic risk of a group of major financial institutions. The systemic risk is measured by the price of insur- ance against financial distress, which is based on ex ante measures of default probabilities of individual banks and forecasted asset return correlations. Importantly, using realized correla- tions estimated from high-frequency equity return data can significantly improve the accuracy of forecasted correlations. Our stress testing methodology, using an integrated micro-macro model, takes into account dynamic linkages between the health of major US banks and macro- financial conditions. Our results suggest that the theoretical insurance premium that would be charged to protect against losses that equal or exceed 15% of total liabilities of 12 major US financial firms stood at $110 billion in March 2008 and had a projected upper bound of $250 billion in July 2008.
    [Show full text]
  • 100 F Sti·Eet NE Washington, DC 20549-1090 Via Email to [email protected]
    The Shareholder Commons PO Box 7545 Wilmington, DE 19803-545 Frederick H. Alexander June 14, 2021 Vanessa A. Countiyman Secretaiy Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Sti·eet NE Washington, DC 20549-1090 Via email to [email protected] RE: Response to request for public input on climate-related disclosure Dear Ms. Countlyman: The Shareholder Commons is a non-profit organization that seeks to shift the paradigm of investing away from its sole focus on individual company value and towards a systems-first approach to investing that better serves investors and their beneficia1ies. In pa1ticular, we act as a voice for long-te1m, diversified shareholders. Together with the undersigned, we ask that you consider the following critical factors in addressing climate-related disclosure. Effective stewardship requires inside-out information The global economy relies on numerous environmental and social common-pool resources­ goods that companies can access for free but are depleted when ovemsed. Carbon sinks- vegetative and oceanic systems that absorb more cai·bon than they emit- are ai1 example of such a resource, in that they help to prevent the most catastrophic impacts of climate change but ai·e threatened by deforestation, euti·ophication, and other impacts of commercial activity. Another example is public health, which constitutes a common social resource because a healthy population provides labor productivity and innovation and limits healthcai·e costs but is subject to depletion by companies that emit carcinogens or sell products that lead to obesity and other health hazards. Individual companies fmai1cially benefit by externalizing costs and depleting such common goods when the return to the business from that free (to it) consumption outweighs any diluted cost it might shai·e as a paiticipai1t in the economy.
    [Show full text]
  • Value-At-Risk Under Systematic Risks: a Simulation Approach
    International Research Journal of Finance and Economics ISSN 1450-2887 Issue 162 July, 2017 http://www.internationalresearchjournaloffinanceandeconomics.com Value-at-Risk Under Systematic Risks: A Simulation Approach Arthur L. Dryver Graduate School of Business Administration National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand E-mail: [email protected] Quan N. Tran Graduate School of Business Administration National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand Vesarach Aumeboonsuke International College National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand Abstract Daily Value-at-Risk (VaR) is frequently reported by banks and financial institutions as a result of regulatory requirements, competitive pressures, and risk management standards. However, recent events of economic crises, such as the US subprime mortgage crisis, the European Debt Crisis, and the downfall of the China Stock Market, haveprovided strong evidence that bad days come in streaks and also that the reported daily VaR may be misleading in order to prevent losses. This paper compares VaR measures of an S&P 500 index portfolio under systematic risks to ones under normal market conditions using a historical simulation method. Analysis indicates that the reported VaR under normal conditions seriously masks and understates the true losses of the portfolio when systematic risks are present. For highly leveraged positions, this means only one VaR hit during a single day or a single week can wipe the firms out of business. Keywords: Value-at-Risks, Simulation methods, Systematic Risks, Market Risks JEL Classification: D81, G32 1. Introduction Definition Value at risk (VaR) is a common statistical technique that is used to measure the dollar amount of the potential downside in value of a risky asset or a portfolio from adverse market moves given a specific time frame and a specific confident interval (Jorion, 2007).
    [Show full text]
  • Systemic Risk in Financial Systems: a Feedback Approach
    Systemic Risk in Financial Systems: a feedback approach Thiago Christiano Silva, Michel Alexandre da Silva and Benjamin Miranda Tabak August 2017 461 ISSN 1518-3548 CGC 00.038.166/0001-05 Working Paper Series Brasília no. 461 Augustust 2017 p. 1-49 Working Paper Series Edited by the Research Department (Depep) – E-mail: [email protected] Editor: Francisco Marcos Rodrigues Figueiredo – E-mail: [email protected] Co-editor: José Valentim Machado Vicente – E-mail: [email protected] Editorial Assistant: Jane Sofia Moita – E-mail: [email protected] Head of the Research Department: André Minella – E-mail: [email protected] The Banco Central do Brasil Working Papers are all evaluated in double-blind refereeing process. Reproduction is permitted only if source is stated as follows: Working Paper no. 461. Authorized by Carlos Viana de Carvalho, Deputy Governor for Economic Policy. General Control of Publications Banco Central do Brasil Comun/Divip SBS – Quadra 3 – Bloco B – Edifício-Sede – 2º subsolo Caixa Postal 8.670 70074-900 Brasília – DF – Brazil Phones: +55 (61) 3414-3710 and 3414-3565 Fax: +55 (61) 3414-1898 E-mail: [email protected] The views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Banco Central do Brasil or its members. Although the working papers often represent preliminary work, citation of source is required when used or reproduced. As opiniões expressas neste trabalho são exclusivamente do(s) autor(es) e não refletem, necessariamente, a visão do Banco Central do Brasil.
    [Show full text]
  • Systemic Risk: a Survey
    EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK WORKING PAPER SERIES WORKING PAPER NO. 35 SYSTEMIC RISK: A SURVEY BY OLIVIER DE BANDT AND PHILIPP HARTMANN November 2000 EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK WORKING PAPER SERIES WORKING PAPER NO. 35 SYSTEMIC RISK: A SURVEY* BY OLIVIER DE BANDT** AND PHILIPP HARTMANN*** November 2000 * The authors wish to thank, without implication, Ivo Arnold, Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi, Frank Browne, Elena Carletti, Pietro Catte, E.P. Davis, Kevin Dowd, Mark Flannery, Marcel Fratzscher, Charles Goodhart, Mauro Grande, Gerhard Illing, Jeff Lacker, Tim Montgomery, María Nieto, Rafael Repullo, Daniela Russo, Benjamin Sahel, the participants of the ECB research seminar, the Tinbergen Institute economics seminar in Rotterdam, the Banking Supervisory Sub-Committee, the Second Joint Central Bank Conference on “Risk Measurement and Systemic Risk”, hosted by the Bank of Japan in Tokyo, and the Center for Financial Studies Conference on “Systemic Risk and Lender of Last Resort Facilities” in Frankfurt for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. Any views expressed in this paper are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reß ect those of the European Central Bank, the Banque de France or the Eurosystem. ** Banque de France, Direction des Etudes et de la Recherche, 39 rue Croix des Petits Champs, 75049 Paris Cedex 01, France, email: [email protected]. *** European Central Bank, DG Research. Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt, Germany, phone: +49-69-1344 7356, fax: +49-69-1344 6575, email: [email protected]. © European Central Bank, 2000 Address Kaiserstrasse 29 D-60311 Frankfurt am Main Germany Postal address Postfach 16 03 19 D-60066 Frankfurt am Main Germany Telephone +49 69 1344 0 Internet http://www.ecb.int Fax +49 69 1344 6000 Telex 411 144 ecb d All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • The Financial Crisis, Systemic Risk, and Thefuture
    Issue Analysis A Public Policy Paper of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies September 2009 The Financial Crisis, Systemic Risk, and the Future of Insurance Regulation By Scott E. Harrington, Ph.D. Executive Summary he bursting of the housing bubble and resulting financial crisis have been followed by the Tworst economic slowdown since the early 1980s if not the Great Depression. This Issue Analysis considers the role of AIG and the insurance sector in the financial crisis, the extent to which insurance involves systemic risk, and the implications for insurance regulation. It provides an overview of the causes of the financial crisis and the events and policies that contributed to the AIG intervention. It considers sources of systemic risk, whether insurance in general poses systemic risk, whether a systemic risk regulator is desirable for insurers or other non-bank financial institutions, and the implications of the crisis for optional federal char- tering of insurers and for insurance regulation in general. Causes of the Financial Crisis Factors that contributed to the crisis include: • Federal government policies encouraged rapid expansion of lending to low-income home buyers with low initial interest rates, low down payments, and lax lending criteria. • Government-sponsored and private residential mortgage-backed securities, rapid growth in credit default swaps (CDS), and related instruments spread exposure to house price declines and mortgage defaults widely across domestic and global financial institutions in a complex and opaque set of transactions. • Bank holding companies aggressively expanded mortgage lending and investment, often through off-balance sheet entities that evaded bank capital requirements.
    [Show full text]
  • Emerging Systemic Risks in the 21St Century
    Emerging Risks in the 21st Century « AN AGENDA FOR ACTION Emerging Risks What is new about risks in the 21st Century? Recent years have witnessed a host of large-scale disasters of various kinds and in various parts of the world: hugely in the 21st Century damaging windstorms and flooding in Europe and ice storms in Canada; new diseases infecting both humans (AIDS, ebola virus) and animals (BSE); terrorist attacks such as those of September 11 in the US and the Sarin gas attack in Japan; major disruptions to critical infrastructures caused by computer viruses or simply technical AN AGENDA FOR ACTION failure, etc. It is not just the nature of major risks that seems to be changing, but also the context in which risks are evolving as well as society’s capacity to manage them. This book explores the implications of these developments for economy and society in the 21st century, focussing in particular on the potentially significant increase in the vulnerability of major systems. The provision of health services, transport, energy, food and water supplies, information and telecomunications are all examples of vital systems that can be severely damaged by a single catastrophic event or a chain of events. Such threats may come from a variety of sources, but this publication concentrates on five large risk clusters: natural disasters, technological accidents, infectious diseases, food safety and terrorism. This book examines the underlying forces driving changes in these risk domains, and identifies the challenges facing Emerging Risks in the 21 OECD countries – especially at international level – in assessing, preparing for and responding to conventional and newly emerging hazards of this kind.
    [Show full text]
  • Empirical Study on CAPM Model on China Stock Market
    Empirical study on CAPM model on China stock market MASTER THESIS WITHIN: Business administration in finance NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15 ECTS TUTOR: Andreas Stephan PROGRAMME OF STUDY: international financial analysis AUTHOR: Taoyuan Zhou, Huarong Liu JÖNKÖPING 05/2018 Master Thesis in Business Administration Title: Empirical study on CAPM model of China stock market Authors: Taoyuan Zhou and Huarong Liu Tutor: Andreas Stephan Date: 05/2018 Key terms: CAPM model, β coefficient, empirical test Abstract Background: The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) describes the interrelationship between the expected return of risk assets and risk in the equilibrium of investment market and gives the equilibrium price of risky assets (Banz, 1981). CAPM plays a very important role in the process of establishing a portfolio (Bodie, 2009). As Chinese stock market continues to grow and expand, the scope and degree of attention of CAPM models in China will also increase day by day. Therefore, in China, such an emerging market, it is greatly necessary to test the applicability and validity of the CAPM model in the capital market. Purpose: Through the monthly data of 100 stocks from January 1, 2007 to February 1, 2018, the time series and cross-sectional data of the capital asset pricing model on Chinese stock market are tested. The main objectives are: (1) Empirical study of the relationship between risk and return using the data of Chinese stock market in recent years to test whether the CAPM model established in the developed western market is suitable for the Chinese market. (2) Through the empirical analysis of the results to analyse the characteristics and existing problems of Chinese capital market.
    [Show full text]
  • Systemic Risk and Regulation
    This PDF is a selection from a published volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: The Risks of Financial Institutions Volume Author/Editor: Mark Carey and René M. Stulz, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-226-09285-2 Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/care06-1 Conference Date: October 22-23, 2004 Publication Date: January 2007 Title: Systemic Risk and Regulation Author: Franklin Allen, Douglas Gale URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c9613 7 Systemic Risk and Regulation Franklin Allen and Douglas Gale 7.1 Introduction The experience of banking crises in the 1930s was severe. Before this, as- suring financial stability was primarily the responsibility of central banks. The Bank of England had led the way. The last true panic in England was associated with the collapse of the Overend, Gurney, and Company in 1866. After that the Bank avoided crises by skillful manipulation of the dis- count rate and supply of liquidity to the market. Many other central banks followed suit, and by the end of the nineteenth century crises in Europe were rare. Although the Federal Reserve System was founded in 1914, its de- centralized structure meant that it was not able to effectively prevent bank- ing crises. The effect of the banking crises in the 1930s was so detrimental that in addition to reforming the Federal Reserve System the United States also imposed many types of banking regulation to prevent systemic risk. These included capital adequacy standards, asset restrictions, liquid- ity requirements, reserve requirements, interest rate ceilings on deposits, and restrictions on services and product lines.
    [Show full text]