The Internet's place in the banking industry

Internet ; Electronic commerce

Whither the community bank? a conference summary

Community banks

For how long are newly chartered banks financially fragile?

We examine the financial performance of 1,664 commercial banks chartered between 1980 and 1985, a period of intense chartering activity just preceding the banking recession of the late-1980s. We compare new banks to a benchmark sample of 2,047 small established banks. Using a split population duration model, we estimate the probability distribution of long-run failure for both sets of banks over a 14 year period, and assess how regulatory, environmental, and bank specific conditions affect that probability distribution. We find that the fragility of a new bank varies over time in a fairly regular ‘life cycle’ pattern, but that how this basic life cycle pattern is positioned vis a vis the business cycle also matters. On average, new banks are initially less likely to fail than established banks; after about four years they become more likely to fail than established banks; and as time passes and new banks mature they fail at rates similar to established banks. But banks chartered just prior to the banking recession failed at the highest rates, and their estimated hazard functions followed an extreme life cycle shape. State laws restricting the acquisition of de novo banks are associated with higher rates of new bank failure, but easy-entry chartering policies are not. We find that de novo failure is more sensitive to capital levels than established bank failure, evidence that Justifies recent increases in minimum capital requirements for de novo banks. Finally, our results suggest that early warning signals may be easier to identify for de novo banks than for established banks, perhaps because banks in the early stages of their life cycles are less heterogeneous and hence simpler to model than mature banks.Bank management ; Bank supervision

Mergers and the changing landscape of commercial banking (Part II)

Bank mergers ; Financial institutions

Birth, growth, and life or death of newly chartered banks

Thousands of new commercial banks have been chartered in the U.S. over the past two decades. This article documents how the financial characteristics of new banks evolve over time, develops a simple theory of why and when new banks fail, and tests the theory using a variety of methods.Bank charters ; Bank failures

Safety, soundness, and the evolution of the U.S. banking industry

Although the banking system appears to be safer and sounder today than it was two decades ago, new risk challenges have arisen that could not have been anticipated in the 1980s. This article outlines the fundamental structural changes in the U.S. commercial banking industry since then. ; The author's strategic analysis of the current state of the industry compares the "transactions banking" business model practiced by large financial companies to the more traditional relationship-based banking business model. In particular, the author focuses on the different production technologies, product mixes, strategic behaviors, and risk-return trade-offs that characterize these two opposite approaches. In closing, the article discusses what these new developments may mean for the industry's ongoing safety and soundness.Banks and banking ; Bank supervision

Learning by observing: information spillovers in the execution and valuation of commercial bank M&As

We hypothesize that banks become better able to manage acquisitions, and investors become better able to value those acquisitions, as these parties ‘learn-by-observing’ information that spills-over from previous bank M&As. We find evidence consistent with these hypotheses for 216 M&As of large, publicly traded U.S. commercial banks between 1987 and 1999. Our theory and our results are predicated on the idea that acquisitions of large and increasingly complex commercial banks were a relatively new phenomenon in the late-1980s, with no best practices to inform bank managers and little information upon which investors could base their valuations. Our findings provide a new explanation for why academic studies have found little evidence that bank mergers create value. Furthermore, our finding that investors become more accurate pricers of new phenomena as they observe greater quantities of those phenomena is consistent with the theory of semi-strong stock market efficiency.Bank mergers ; Financial institutions

Why Bank One left Chicago: One piece in a bigger puzzle

Bank mergers

How do banks make money? a variety of business strategies

In the second of two articles, the authors show that the business strategy chosen by a commercial banking company can have a substantial impact on its risk-return profile. Their analysis suggests that a wide variety of business strategies are likely to be financially viable in the future but, echoing concerns of others, they conclude that very small banking companies will face financial challenges regardless of the business strategy they selectBanks and banking ; Bank investments ; Money

How do banks make money? the fallacies of fee income

In the first of two articles in this issue, the authors document the increasing importance of noninterest income at U.S. commercial banking companies and address two fundamental misunderstandings regarding this trend: the belief that fee-based activities provide more stable earnings than interest-based income and the belief that fee income flows chiefly from nontraditional, nonbanking activities.Income ; Money ; Payment systems