IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ijc/ijcjou/y2023q2a4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

After the Storm: Natural Disasters and Bank Solvency

Author

Listed:
  • Dieter Gramlich

    (Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, Heidenheim, Germany)

  • Thomas Walker

    (John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada)

  • Yunfei Zhao

    (College of Business and Public Management, Wenzhou-Kean University, Zhejiang Province, China)

  • Mohammad Bitar

    (Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)

Abstract

This study examines how natural disasters affect the solvency of banks. It explores (i) whether and how natural disasters affect bank solvency, (ii) how accounting and regulatory measures of bank solvency reflect a bank’s true affectedness, and (iii) whether the effects vary across different types of banks. Analyzing a comprehensive data set on natural catastrophes and detailed financial statements for 9,928 banks that operate in 149 countries, the main finding is that damages from disasters matter: they negatively affect capital ratios, and the severity of their impact depends on a bank’s location, capitalization, and business model. Particularly, the results show that accounting measures of solvency are more sensitive to disasters than are regulatory measures. Evidence of a bank’s sensitivity to natural disasters and the suitability of capital ratios to assess this sensitivity may both be helpful for financial institutions and regulatory authorities in designing appropriate risk mitigation strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Dieter Gramlich & Thomas Walker & Yunfei Zhao & Mohammad Bitar, 2023. "After the Storm: Natural Disasters and Bank Solvency," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 19(2), pages 199-249, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ijc:ijcjou:y:2023:q:2:a:4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ijcb.org/journal/ijcb23q2a4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ijcb.org/journal/ijcb23q2a4.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cortés, Kristle Romero & Strahan, Philip E., 2017. "Tracing out capital flows: How financially integrated banks respond to natural disasters," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 182-199.
    2. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    3. Elijah Brewer III & George Kaufman & Larry Wall, 2008. "Bank Capital Ratios Across Countries: Why Do They Vary?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 34(2), pages 177-201, December.
    4. Bischof, Jannis & Laux, Christian & Leuz, Christian, 2020. "Accounting for financial stability: Lessons from the financial crisis and future challenges," SAFE Working Paper Series 283, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    5. Balvers, Ronald & Du, Ding & Zhao, Xiaobing, 2017. "Temperature shocks and the cost of equity capital: Implications for climate change perceptions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 18-34.
    6. Abou-El-Sood, Heba, 2016. "Are regulatory capital adequacy ratios good indicators of bank failure? Evidence from US banks," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 292-302.
    7. Reinhard Mechler & Laurens Bouwer, 2015. "Understanding trends and projections of disaster losses and climate change: is vulnerability the missing link?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 23-35, November.
    8. Ulrich Schüwer & Claudia Lambert & Felix Noth, 2019. "How Do Banks React to Catastrophic Events? Evidence from Hurricane Katrina," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 75-116.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Caloia & David-Jan Jansen & Kees van Ginkel, 2023. "Floods and financial stability: Scenario-based evidence from below sea level," Working Papers 796, DNB.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hoque, Hafiz & Liu, Heng, 2022. "Capital structure of Islamic banks: How different are they from conventional banks?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. Robert Stewart & Murshed Chowdhury & Vaalmikki Arjoon, 2021. "Bank stability and economic growth: trade-offs or opportunities?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 827-853, August.
    3. Thomas Hemmelgarn & Daniel Teichmann, 2014. "Tax reforms and the capital structure of banks," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 645-693, August.
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Molyneux, Phil & Wilson, John O.S., 2020. "Banks and the real economy: An assessment of the research," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Ignacio Moreno & Purificación Parrado‐Martínez & Antonio Trujillo‐Ponce, 2020. "Economic crisis and determinants of solvency in the insurance sector: new evidence from Spain," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 2965-2994, September.
    6. Breckenfelder, Johannes & Maćkowiak, Bartosz & Marqués-Ibáñez, David & Olovsson, Conny & Popov, Alexander & Porcellacchia, Davide & Schepens, Glenn, 2023. "The climate and the economy," Working Paper Series 2793, European Central Bank.
    7. Schüwer, Ulrich & Gropp, Reint E. & Noth, Felix, 2016. "What drives banks' geographic expansion? The role of locally non-diversifiable risk," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145885, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Garbarino, Nicola & Guin, Benjamin, 2021. "High water, no marks? Biased lending after extreme weather," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. repec:ecb:ecbdps:202322 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Braun, Alexander & Braun, Julia & Weigert, Florian, 2023. "Extreme weather risk and the cost of equity," CFR Working Papers 23-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    11. Markus Herrmann & Martin Hibbeln, 2023. "Trading and liquidity in the catastrophe bond market," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 90(2), pages 283-328, June.
    12. Bayangos, Veronica B. & Cachuela, Rafael Augusto D. & Prado, Fatima Lourdes E. Del, 2021. "Impact of extreme weather episodes on the Philippine banking sector – Evidence using branch-level supervisory data," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 2(1).
    13. Pauline Avril & Gregory Levieuge & Camelia Turcu, 2023. "Do bankers want their umbrellas back when it rains? Evidence from typhoons in China," Working Papers 2023.08, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    14. Pauline Avril & Gregory Levieuge & Camelia Turcu, 2021. "Natural Disasters and Financial Stress: Can Macroprudential Regulation Tame Green Swans?," Working Papers 2021.13, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    15. Soumaré, Issouf & Tchakoute Tchuigoua, Hubert & Hessou, Hélyoth T.S., 2020. "Are microfinance institutions resilient to economic slowdown? Evidence from their capital ratio adjustment over the business cycle," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1-22.
    16. Sandra Aguilar-Gomez & Emilio Gutierrez & David Heres & David Jaume & Martin Tobal, 2022. "Thermal Stress and Financial Distress: Extreme Temperatures and Firms’ Loan Defaults in Mexico," Working Papers 148, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    17. Koetter, Michael & Noth, Felix & Rehbein, Oliver, 2020. "Borrowers under water! Rare disasters, regional banks, and recovery lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    18. Allen, Kyle D. & Whitledge, Matthew D. & Winters, Drew B., 2022. "Community bank liquidity: Natural disasters as a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    19. Xia Chen & Chun-Ping Chang, 2021. "The shocks of natural hazards on financial systems," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 105(3), pages 2327-2359, February.
    20. Kakuho Furukawa & Hibiki Ichiue & Noriyuki Shiraki, 2020. "How Does Climate Change Interact with the Financial System? A Survey," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 20-E-8, Bank of Japan.

    More about this item

    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
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ijc:ijcjou:y:2023:q:2:a:4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bank for International Settlements (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ijcb.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.