On the profitability and cost of relationship lending

The authors provide some preliminary evidence on the costs and profitability of relationship lending by commercial banks. Drawing on recent research that has identified loan rate smoothing as a significant element in lending relationships between banks and firms, the authors carry out a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, the authors derive bank-specific measures of the extent to which the banks in their sample engage in loan rate smoothing for small business borrowers in response to exogenous shocks to their credit risk. In the second stage, the authors estimate cost and (alternative) profit functions to examine how loan rate smoothing affects a banks' costs and profits. On the whole, the authors' evidence says that loan rate smoothing is associated with lower costs and lower profits. These results do not support the hypothesis that loan rate smoothing arises as part of an optimal long-term contract between a bank and its borrower. However, we do find so me limited support for smoothing as part of an optimal contract for small banks early in our sample period.Bank loans

On the Profitability and Cost of Relationship Lending

We provide evidence on the costs and profitability of relationship lending by banks. We derive bank-specific measures of loan rate smoothing for small business borrowers in response to exogenous shocks to their credit risk and to interest rates, and then estimate cost and profit functions to examine how smoothing affects bank costs and profits. Our results suggests that, in general, loan rate smoothing in response to a credit risk shock is not part of an optimal long-term contract between a bank and its borrower, while loan rate smoothing in response to an interest rate shock is.Bank; Lending; Small Business; Profit; Cost

Asset securitisation as a risk management and funding tool : what does it hold in store for SMES?

The following chapter critically surveys the attendant benefits and drawbacks of asset securitisation on both financial institutions and firms. It also elicits salient lessons to be learned about the securitisation of SME-related obligations from a cursory review of SME securitisation in Germany as a foray of asset securitisation in a bank-centred financial system paired with a strong presence of SMEs in industrial production. JEL Classification: D81, G15, M2

Securitization is not that evil after all

A growing number of studies on the US subprime market indicate that, due to asymmetric information, credit risk transfer activities have perverse effects on banksÂ’ lending standards. We investigate a large part of the market for securitized assets (“prime mortgages”) in Italy, a country with a regulatory framework analogous to the one prevalent in Europe. Information on over a million mortgages consists of loan-level variables, characteristics of the originating bank and, most importantly, contractual features of the securitization deal, including the seniority structure of the ABSs issued by the Special Purpose Vehicle and the amount retained by the originator. We borrow a robust way to test for the effects of asymmetric information from the empirical contract theory literature (Chiappori and Salanié, 2000). Overall, our evidence suggests that banks can effectively counter the negative effects of asymmetric information in the securitization market by selling less opaque loans, using signaling devices (i.e. retaining a share of the equity tranche of the ABSs issued by the SPV) and building up a reputation for not undermining their own lending standards.securitization, asymmetric information, signaling, reputation

RURAL FINANCE

Rural financial intermediation faces several challenges, including, shortcomings and systematic weaknesses of rural financial markets, urban biased policies and poorly designed interventions not based on the realities of rural markets. Against this background the purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of some concepts of financial theory, the history of conventional approaches in rural financial markets, informal finance, the role of savings mobilization and a discussion on the new approach to rural financial markets. The aim is to present the building blocks essential to the understanding of rural financial markets. The roles of information, transaction costs and measurement of success are emphasized.Financial Economics,

Integrating credit and interest rate risk: A theoretical framework and an application to banks' balance sheets

Credit and interest rate risk in the banking book are the two most important risks faced by commercial banks. In this paper we derive a consistent and general framework to measure the riskiness of a bank which is subject to correlated interest rate and credit risk. The framework accounts for all sources of credit risk, interest rate risk and their combined impact As we model the whole balance sheet of a bank the framework not only enables us to assess the impact of credit and interest rate risk on the bank's economic value but also on its future earnings and capital adequacy. We apply our framework to a hypothetical bank in normal and stressed conditions. The simulation highlights that it is fundamental to measure the impact of correlated interest rate and credit risk jointly on the whole portfolio of banks, including assets, liabilities and off-balance sheet itemsIntegration of credit risk & interest rate risk, asset & liability management of banks, economic value, stress testing

Universal banks and relationships with firms : [Version Mai 2003]

Some of the most widely expressed myths about the German financial system are concerned with the close ties and intensive interaction between banks and firms, often described as Hausbank relationships. Links between banks and firms include direct shareholdings, board representation, and proxy voting and are particularly significant for corporate governance. Allegedly, these relationships promote investment and improve the performance of firms. Furthermore, German universal banks are believed to play a special role as large and informed monitoring investors (shareholders). However, for the very same reasons, German universal banks are frequently accused of abusing their influence on firms by exploiting rents and sustaining the entrenchment of firms against efficient transfers of firm control. In this paper, we review recent empirical evidence regarding the special role of banks for the corporate governance of German firms. We differentiate between large exchangelisted firms and small and medium sized companies throughout. With respect to the role of banks as monitoring investors, the evidence does not unanimously support a special role of banks for large firms. Only one study finds that banks´ control of management goes beyond what nonbank shareholders achieve. Proxyvoting rights apparently do not provide a significant means for banks to exert management control. Most of the recent evidence regarding small firms suggests that a Hausbank relationship can indeed be beneficial. Hausbanks are more willing to sustain financing when borrower quality deteriorates, and they invest more often than arm´s length banks in workouts if borrowers face financial distress

The Cost of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case of the Community Reinvestment Act

A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) cost minimization model is employed to estimate the cost to thrift institutions of achieving a rating of 'Outstanding' under the anti-redlining Community Reinvestment Act, which is viewed as an act of voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). There is no difference in overall cost efficiency between 'Outstanding' and minimally compliant 'Satisfactory' thrifts. However, the sources of cost inefficiency do differ, and an 'Outstanding' rating involves annual extra cost of $7.4 million or, 1.3% of total costs. This added cost is the shadow price of CSR since it is not an explicit output or input in the DEA cost model. Before and After-tax rates of return are the same for the 'Outstanding' and 'Satisfactory' thrifts, which implies a recoupment of the extra cost. The findings are consistent with CSR as a management choice based on balancing marginal cost and marginal revenue. An incidental finding is that larger thrifts are less efficient

An Integrated Model for Liquidity Management and Short-Term Asset Allocation in Commercial Banks

This work develops an integrated model for optimal asset allocation in commercial banks that incorporates uncertain liquidity constraints that are currently ignored by RAROC and EVA models. While the economic profit accounts for the opportunity cost of risky assets, what may even incorporate a market liquidity premium, it neglects the risk of failure due to the lack of sufficient funds to cope with unexpected cash demands arising from bank runs, drawdowns, or market, credit and operational losses, what may happen along with credit rationing episodes or systemic level dry ups. Given a liquidity constraint that can incorporate these factors, there is a failure probability Pf that the constraint will not hold, resulting in a value loss for the bank, represented by a stochastic failure loss . By assuming that bankers are risk neutral in their decision about the size of the liquidity cushion, the economic profit less the possible losses due to the lack of liquidity is optimized, resulting in a short-term asset allocation model that integrates market, credit and operational risks in the liquidity management of banks. Even though a general approach is suggested through simulation, I provide a closed form solution for Pf , under some simplifying assumptions, that may be useful for research and supervision purposes as an indicator of the liquidity management adequacy in the banking system. I also suggest an extreme value theory approach for the estimation of , departing from other liquidity management models that use a penalty rate over the demand of cash that exceeds the availability of liquid resources. The model was applied to Brazilian banks data resulting in gains over the optimization without liquidity considerations that are robust under several tests, giving empirical indications that the model may have a relevant impact on the value creation in banks.

The cyclical behaviour of European bank capital buffers

Using an unbalanced panel of commercial, savings and co-operative banks for the years 1997 to 2004 we examine the cyclical behaviour of European bank capital buffers. After controlling for other potential de-terminants of bank capital, we find that capital buffers of the banks in the accession countries (RAM) have a significant positive relationship with the cycle, while for those in the EU15 and the EA and the combined EU25 the relationship is significantly negative. We additionally find fairly slow speeds of ad-justment, with around two-thirds of the correction towards desired capital buffers taking place each year. We further distinguish by type and size of bank, and find that capital buffers of commercial and savings banks, and also of a sub-sample of large banks, exhibit negative co-movement. Co-operative banks and smaller banks on the other hand, tend to exhibit positive cyclical co-movement.bank capital; bank regulation; business cycle fluctuations