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The Complexity of Bank Holding Companies: A Topological Approach

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  • Flood, Mark D.
  • Kenett, Dror Y.
  • Lumsdaine, Robin L.
  • Simon, Jonathan K.

Abstract

We develop metrics to assess the complexity of a bank holding company (BHC), based on its ownership structure. Large BHCs have intricate ownership hierarchies involving hundreds or even thousands of legal entities that may contribute to increased operational risk and greater opacity. Our measures are mathematically grounded, intuitive, and easy to implement. They may be particularly useful in the context of resolution, where regulators often face significant time pressure and coordination challenges. We use regulatory filing data from the Federal Reserve to validate the measures, demonstrating that they provide a useful complement to balance sheet information in assessing BHC complexity. Notably, the proposed measures are highly correlated with existing complexity indicators that are not based on organizational structure and are less correlated with size than these existing complexity measures. We show that the proposed measures provide additional explanatory power for the regulatory indicators, even after controlling for size.

Suggested Citation

  • Flood, Mark D. & Kenett, Dror Y. & Lumsdaine, Robin L. & Simon, Jonathan K., 2020. "The Complexity of Bank Holding Companies: A Topological Approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:118:y:2020:i:c:s0378426620300571
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2020.105789
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    Cited by:

    1. Lumsdaine, R.L. & Rockmore, D.N. & Foti, N.J. & Leibon, G. & Farmer, J.D., 2021. "The intrafirm complexity of systemically important financial institutions," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    2. Tembo Nakamoto & Abhijit Chakraborty & Yuichi Ikeda, 2019. "Identification of Key Companies for International Profit Shifting in the Global Ownership Network," Papers 1904.12397, arXiv.org.
    3. Abad, Jorge & D’Errico, Marco & Killeen, Neill & Luz, Vera & Peltonen, Tuomas & Portes, Richard & Urbano, Teresa, 2022. "Mapping exposures of EU banks to the global shadow banking system," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    4. León, Carlos, 2021. "The dawn of a mobile payment scheme: The case of Movii," Working papers 78, Red Investigadores de Economía.
    5. Correa, Ricardo & Goldberg, Linda S., 2022. "Bank complexity, governance, and risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    6. Cao, Jin & Juelsrud, Ragnar E., 2022. "Opacity and risk-taking: Evidence from Norway," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Claudia M. Buch & Linda S. Goldberg, 2021. "Complexity and Riskiness of Banking Organizations: Evidence from the International Banking Research Network," Staff Reports 966, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Brunetti, Celso & Harris, Jeffrey H. & Mankad, Shawn, 2023. "Networks, interconnectedness, and interbank information asymmetry," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    9. Gai, Prasanna & Kemp, Malcolm & Sánchez Serrano, Antonio & Schnabel, Isabel, 2019. "Regulatory complexity and the quest for robust regulation," Report of the Advisory Scientific Committee 8, European Systemic Risk Board.
    10. Aldasoro, Iñaki & Hardy, Bryan & Jager, Maximilian, 2022. "The Janus face of bank geographic complexity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    11. León, Carlos, 2021. "The adoption of a mobile payment system: the user perspective," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 2(4).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Orderly resolution; Supervisory coordination; Opacity; Graph quotient; Edge contraction; Y-15;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access

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