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The effects of focus and diversification on bank risk and return: evidence from individual bank loan portfolios

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Author Info
Viral V. Acharya
Iftekhar Hasan
Anthony Saunders

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Abstract

We study empirically the effect of focus (specialization) vs. diversification on the return and the risk of banks using data from 105 Italian banks over the period 1993–1999. Specifically, we analyze the tradeoffs between (loan portfolio) focus and diversification using a unique data set that is able to identify individual bank loan exposures to different industries, to different sectors, and to different geographical regions. Our results are consistent with a theory that predicts a deterioration in bank monitoring quality at high levels of risk and a deterioration in bank monitoring quality upon lending expansion into newer or competitive industries. Our most important findings are that industrial loan diversification reduces bank return while endogenously producing riskier loans for all banks in our sample, this effect being most powerful for high risk banks, sectoral loan diversification produces an inefficient risk–return tradeoff only for high risk banks, and geographical diversification results in an improvement in the risk–return tradeoff for banks with low levels of risk. A robust result that emerges from our empirical findings is that diversification of bank assets is not guaranteed to produce superior performance and/or greater safety for banks.

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Article provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its journal Proceedings.

Volume (Year): (2002)
Issue (Month): May ()
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhpr:y:2002:i:may:x:1

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Keywords: Bank capital ; Risk management;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Alicia Garcia Herrero & Daniel Navia Simon, 2004. "Determinants And Impact Of Financial Sector Fdi To Emerging," International Finance 0403001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  2. Stolz, Stephanie & Wedow, Michael, 2005. "Banks' regulatory capital buffer and the business cycle: evidence for German savings and cooperative banks," Discussion Paper Series 2: Banking and Financial Studies 2005,07, Deutsche Bundesbank, Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
  3. Gianni De Nicoló & Philip F. Bartholomew & Jahanara Zaman & M. G. Zephirin, 2003. "Bank Consolidation, Internationalization and Conglomeration: Trends and Implications for Financial Risk," IMF Working Papers 03/158, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  4. Frank Heid & Daniel Porath & Stéphanie Stolz, 2003. "Does Capital Regulation Matter for Bank Behavior? Evidence for German savings banks," Kiel Working Papers 1192, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Francisco F. Vázquez & Alicia García-Herrero, 2007. "International Diversification Gains and Home Bias in Banking," IMF Working Papers 07/281, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  6. Claudia M. Buch & John C. Driscoll & Charlotte Ostergaard, 2004. "Cross-border diversification in bank asset portfolios," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-26, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Kevin J. Stiroh, 2002. "Diversification in banking: is noninterest income the answer?," Staff Reports 154, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Kevin Stiroh, 2004. "Do Community Banks Benefit from Diversification?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 135-160, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Christian Calmès & Raymond Théoret, 2009. "The Impact of Banking Deregulation on Canadian Banks Returns," RePAd Working Paper Series UQO-DSA-wp022009, Département des sciences administratives, UQO. [Downloadable!]
  10. Kevin Stiroh, 2006. "New Evidence on the Determinants of Bank Risk," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 237-263, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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