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October 15, 2018

Did Banks Subject to LCR Reduce Liquidity Creation?

Daniel Roberts, Asani Sarkar, and Or Shachar

Banks traditionally provide loans that are funded mostly by deposits and thereby create liquidity, which benefits the economy. However, since the loans are typically long-term and illiquid, whereas the deposits are short-term and liquid, this creation of liquidity entails risk for the bank because of the possibility that depositors may “run” (that is, withdraw their deposits on short notice). To mitigate this risk, regulators implemented the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) following the financial crisis of 2007-08, mandating banks to hold a buffer of liquid assets. A side effect of the regulation, however, is a reduction in liquidity creation by banks subject to LCR, as we find in our recent paper.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Banks , Federal Reserve , Financial Institutions , Financial Intermediation , Liquidity , Regulation | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

October 12, 2018

Leverage Rule Arbitrage

Dong Beom Choi, Michael Holcomb, and Donald P. Morgan

Classic arbitrage involves the same asset selling at different prices; the leverage rule arbitrage we study here involves assets of different risk levels requiring the same amount of capital. The supplementary leverage ratio (SLR) rule, finalized by U.S. regulators in September 2014, requires a minimum ratio of capital to assets at the largest U.S. banks. The floor is higher for more systemically important banks, but not for banks with riskier assets. That non-risk-based aspect of SLR was intentional, since the leverage limit was meant to backstop (“supplement”) risk-based capital rules in case banks underestimate their asset risk and overstate their capital strength. As policymakers have noted and bankers have warned, if the leverage rule is the binding capital requirement, banks can “arbitrage” the rule by selling safer assets and replacing them with riskier, higher-yielding ones. The findings of our recent staff report are consistent with those concerns.

Posted by Blog Author at 11:05 AM in Banks , Financial Institutions , Financial Intermediation | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

October 11, 2018

What Happens When Regulatory Capital Is Marked to Market?

Andreas Fuster and James Vickery

Minimum equity capital requirements are a key part of bank regulation. But there is little agreement about the right way to measure regulatory capital. One of the key debates is the extent to which capital ratios should be based on current market values rather than historical “accrual” values of assets and liabilities. In a new research paper, we investigate the effects of a recent regulatory change that ties regulatory capital directly to the market value of the securities portfolio for some banks.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Bank Capital , Banks , Financial Intermediation , Regulation | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

October 10, 2018

Why Do Banks Target ROE?

George Pennacchi and João A.C. Santos

Nonfinancial corporations focus on the growth in earnings per share (EPS) to benchmark their performance. Banks used to follow a similar practice, but starting in the late 1970s they began to emphasize return on equity (ROE) instead. In this blog post, we outline findings from our recent staff report, which argues that banks had an incentive to make this change when their charter values eroded owing to increased competition, and the incentive to change was magnified by risk-insensitive deposit insurance.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Bank Capital , Banks | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

October 09, 2018

Analyzing the Effects of CFPB Oversight

Andreas Fuster, Matthew Plosser, and James Vickery

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created in 2011, is a key element of post-crisis U.S. financial regulation, as well as the subject of intense debate. While some have praised the agency, citing the benefits of consumer financial protection, others argue that its activities involve high compliance costs, increase uncertainty and legal risk, and ultimately reduce the availability of financial services for consumers. We present new evidence on whether the CFPB’s supervisory and enforcement activities have significantly affected the supply of mortgage credit, or had other effects on bank risk-taking and profitability.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Banks , Credit , Dodd-Frank , Financial Intermediation , Mortgages , Regulation | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

October 04, 2018

Changing Risk-Return Profiles

Richard Crump, Domenico Giannone, and Sean Hundtofte

Are stock returns predictable? This question is a perennially popular subject of debate. In this post, we highlight some results from our recent working paper, where we investigate the matter. Rather than focusing on a single object like the forecasted mean or median, we look at the entire distribution of stock returns and find that the realized volatility of stock returns, especially financial sector stock returns, has strong predictive content for the future distribution of stock returns. This is a robust feature of the data since all of our results are obtained with real-time analyses using stock return data since the 1920s. Motivated by this result, we then evaluate whether the banking system appears healthier today, and if recent regulatory reforms have helped.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Financial Intermediation , Financial Markets , Forecasting | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

October 03, 2018

The Cost of Regulatory Capital

Matthew Plosser and João A.C. Santos

Banks contend that equity capital is expensive and that an increase in capital requirements will adversely impact bank services, including the volume and cost of mortgages and corporate loans. For example, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in 2017 that “It is clear that the banks have too much capital…and more of that capital can be safely used to finance the economy.” In a recent staff report, we compare the different treatments of short-term credit commitments under the Basel I and Basel II Accords to assess the effect of capital regulation on banks’ cost of capital.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Bank Capital , Banks | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

October 02, 2018

Resolving “Too Big to Fail”

Nicola Cetorelli and James Traina

Many market participants believe that large financial institutions enjoy an implicit guarantee that the government will step in to rescue them from potential failure. These “Too Big to Fail” (TBTF) issues became particularly salient during the 2008 crisis. From the government’s perspective, rescuing these financial institutions can be important to avoid harm to the financial system. The bailouts also artificially lower the risk borne by investors and the financing costs of big banks. The Dodd-Frank Act attempts to remove the incentive for governments to bail out banks in the first place by mandating that each large bank file a “living will” that details its strategy for a rapid and orderly resolution in the event of material distress or failure without disrupting the broader economy. In our recent New York Fed staff report, we look at whether living wills are effective at reducing the cost of implicit TBTF bailout subsidies.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Crisis , Dodd-Frank , Financial Institutions , Financial Intermediation , Regulation , Systemic Risk | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

October 01, 2018

Regulatory Changes and the Cost of Capital for Banks

Anna Kovner, Peter Van Tassel, and Brandon Zborowski

In response to the financial crisis nearly a decade ago, a number of regulations were passed to improve the safety and soundness of the financial system. In this post and our related staff report, we provide a new perspective on the effect of these regulations by estimating the cost of capital for banks over the past two decades. We find that, while banks’ cost of capital soared during the financial crisis, after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA), banks experienced a greater decrease in their cost of capital than nonbanks and nonbank financial intermediaries (NBFI).

Posted by Blog Author at 7:02 AM in Bank Capital , Banks , Corporate Finance , Crisis , Dodd-Frank | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

The Effects of Post-Crisis Banking Reforms

Richard Crump and João A.C. Santos

The financial crisis of 2007-08 exposed many limitations of the regulatory architecture of the U.S. financial system. In an attempt to mitigate these limitations, there has been a wave of regulatory reforms in the post-crisis period, especially in the banking sector. These include tighter bank capital and liquidity rules; new resolution procedures for failed banks; the creation of a stand-alone consumer protection agency; greater transparency in money market funds; and a move to central clearing of derivatives, among other measures. As these reforms have been finalized and implemented, a healthy debate has emerged in the policy and academic communities over the degree to which they have achieved their intended goals and the extent of any unintended consequences that might have arisen in the process.

Posted by Blog Author at 7:00 AM in Banks , Crisis | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

About the Blog

Liberty Street Economics features insight and analysis from New York Fed economists working at the intersection of research and policy. Launched in 2011, the blog takes its name from the Bank’s headquarters at 33 Liberty Street in Manhattan’s Financial District.

The editors are Michael Fleming, Andrew Haughwout, Thomas Klitgaard, and Asani Sarkar, all economists in the Bank’s Research Group.

The views expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the New York Fed or the Federal Reserve System.

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