Bank Capital and Loan Liquidity* Allen N. Berger University of South Carolina, Wharton Financial Institutions Center, European Banking Center Donghang Zhang University of South Carolina Yijia (Eddie) Zhao University of Massachusetts Boston December 2019 Abstract We find that higher capital ratios for a lead bank are associated with greater secondary market liquidity of loans the bank syndicates. This effect is stronger when banks are more subject to external financing frictions and during the 2007:Q3 – 2009:Q4 financial crisis. Tests using exogenous shocks to capital generated by banks’ housing market exposure and the 2012 JPMorgan Chase ‘London Whale’ shock are suggestive of causality. Overall, our paper contributes to the research and policy debates on the efficacy of bank capital. We also shed new light on the link between intermediary capital and asset liquidity. * Berger,
[email protected] and Zhang,
[email protected], Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, 1014 Greene Street, Columbia, SC 29208; Zhao,
[email protected], College of Management, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA 02125. We thank Christa Bouwman, Edie Hotchkiss, Dasol Kim, Justin Murfin, Manju Puri, Robert Prilmeier, Haluk Unal, Guofu Zhou, and conference/seminar participants at the 19th FDIC/JFSR Annual Bank Research Conference, UMass Lowell (Manning), Institute of Financial Studies at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics for very useful comments. We give special thanks to John Bell and Heather Young at Loomis Sayles for helpful discussions on syndicated loan trading institutional details. Bank Capital and Loan Liquidity December 2019 Abstract We find that higher capital ratios for a lead bank are associated with greater secondary market liquidity of loans the bank syndicates.