Which interest rate scenario is the worst one for a bank? Evidence from a tracking bank approach for German savings and cooperative banks

Interest income is the most important source of revenue for most of the banks. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of different interest rate scenarios on the banks' interest income. As we do not know the interest rate sensitivity of real banks, we construct for each bank a portfolio with a similar composition of its assets and liabilities, called 'tracking bank'. We evaluate the effect of 260 historical interest rate shocks on the tracking banks of German savings banks and cooperative banks. It turns out that a sharp decrease in the steepness of the yield curve has the most negative impact on the banks' interest income. -- Der Zinsüberschuss ist für die meisten Banken die wichtigste Ertragsquelle. Stresstests in Bezug auf den Zinsüberschuss sind daher von wesentlicher Bedeutung. Die einzelnen Banken können solche Stresstests relativ einfach durchführen, weil ihnen die notwendigen Informationen (zukünftige Zahlungsströme und die Laufzeitstruktur der Forderungen und Verbindlichkeiten) vorliegen. Au?enstehende dagegen müssen die Laufzeitstruktur der Forderungen und Verbindlichkeiten auf Grundlage von Aktienkursänderungen oder Jahresabschlüssen schätzen.Interest Rate Risk,Stress Testing

Banks' exposure to interest rate risk, their earnings from term transformation, and the dynamics of the term structure

We use a unique dataset of German banks' exposure to interest rate risk to derive the following statements about their exposure to this risk and their earnings from term transformation. The systematic factor for the exposure to interest rate risk moves in sync with the shape of the term structure. At bank level, however, the time variation of the exposure is largely determined by idiosyncratic effects. Over time, changes in earnings from term transformation have a large impact on interest income. Across banks, however, the earnings from term transformation do not seem to be a decisive factor for the interest margin. --interest rate risk,term transformation,interest income

How correlated are changes in banks' net interest income and in their present value?

We use portfolios of passive investment strategies to replicate the interest risk of banks' banking books. The following empirical statements are derived: (i) Changes in banks' present value and in their net interest income are highly correlated, irrespective of the banks' portfolio composition. (ii) However, banks' portfolio composition has a huge impact on the ratio of changes in net interest income relative to changes in present value. --Interest rate risk,term transformation,interest income,change in present value

How do banks adjust their capital ratios? Evidence from Germany

We analyze the dynamics of banks' regulatory capital ratios. Using monthly data of regulatory capital ratios for a subset of large German banks, we estimate the target level and the adjustment speed of the capital ratio for each bank separately. We find evidence that, first, there exists a target level for a substantial percentage of banks; second, that private banks and banks with liquid assets are more likely to adjust their capital ratio tightly; and third, that banks compensate for low target capital ratios with low asset volatilities and high adjustment speeds. Fourth, banks with a target capital ratio seem to use an internal lower limit for their current ratios that is just above the regulatory minimum of 8%. --Regulatory bank capital,target capital ratio,partial adjustment,Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process

Relationship lending: empirical evidence for Germany

Relationship lending is a common practice in credit financing all over the world, particularly in Germany. On the basis of a comprehensive data set comprising information on firm-bank relationships for more than 16,000 observations, this study analyses the determinants of relationship lending in Germany. We find that small, young and R&D-intensive firms tend to choose relationship lending. Furthermore, we find that firms with a higher creditworthiness are more likely to choose a relationship lender. We find that the importance of relationship lending stayed roughly constant since the mid 90s. --Relationship banking,German banking system,SME

Contagion at the interbank market with stochastic LGD

This paper investigates contagion at the German interbank market under the assumption of a stochastic loss given default (LGD). We combine a unique data set about the LGD of interbank loans with data about interbank exposures. We find that the frequency distribution of the LGD is u-shaped. Under the assumption of a stochastic LGD, simulation results show a more fragile banking system than under the assumption of a constant LGD. There are three types of banks concerning their tendency to trigger contagion: banks with strongly varying impact, banks whose impact is relatively constant, and banks with no direct impact. --interbank market,contagion,stochastic LGD

RELATIONSHIP LENDING - EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR GERMANY

Relationship lending is a common practice in credit financing all over the world, notably also in the European Union, which has been assumed to be particularly beneficial for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). During recent years, there has been the impression that relationship lending loses ground due to a change of the banks' business models, which could ultimately yield to a worsening of the business environment for corporates and SMEs. In this study, we investigate the determinants of relationship lending for Germany, where relationship lending traditionally plays an important role. Compared to previous studies, we refer to much more comprehensive data with information on more than 16,000 firm-bank relationships. Our findings confirm the assumption that relationship lending seems to be an important pillar for economic growth and employment: We find that the firms that are most likely to contribute to (future) economic growth, namely small and R&D-intensive firms, tend to choose a relationship lender. The same is observed for firms of high credit quality, independent of their size or R&D intensity. Furthermore, we also observe that the importance of relationship lending did not decrease since the mid 1990s.Relationship banking; German banking system; SME

Banks Net Interest Margin and the Level of Interest Rates

An increase in the level of interest rates is said to have a negative impact on banks net interest margins in the short run. Using a time series of more than 40 years for the German banking system, we show that the opposite effect exists in the long run, where an increase in the level of interest rates by 100 basis points leads to an estimated increase of 7 basis points in the banks net interest margin. In addition, we analyze the consequences of the low-interest rate environment and find that banks interest margins for retail deposits, especially for term deposits, have declined by up to 97 basis points

On the estimation of the global minimum variance portfolio

Expected returns can hardly be estimated from time series data. Therefore, many recent papers suggest investing in the global minimum variance portfolio. The weights of this portfolio depend only on the return variances and covariances, but not on the expected returns. The weights of the global minimum variance portfolio are usually estimated by replacing the true return covariance matrix by its time series estimator. However, little is known about the distributions of the estimated weights and return parameters of this portfolio. Our contribution is to determine these distributions. The knowledge of these distributions allows us to calculate the extent of the estimation risk an investor faces and to answer important questions in asset management

Diversification and the banks' risk-return-characteristics: evidence from loan portfolios of German banks

Banks face a tradeoff between diversifying and focusing their loan portfolio. In this paper we carry out an empirical study for the German market to shed light on the question whether or not the benefits of risk sharing outweigh those of specialization. We use data from the Bundesbank's quarterly borrowers statistic to determine the degree of diversification in the banks' loan portfolios and combine this data with the banks' balance sheets and audit reports. The unique database comprises data from all German banks during the period from 1993 to 2003. Our main results can be summarized in three statements: i) Specialized banks have a slightly higher return than diversified banks. ii) Specialized banks have lower relative loan loss provisions and lower shares of non-performing loans, iii) However, the standard deviations of the loan loss provision ratio and the non-performing loan ratio are lower for diversified banks. --bank lending,loan portfolio,portfolio theory,diversification,riskreturn analysis