Hedging and Coordinated Risk Management: Evidence from Thrift Conversions

The authors propose an approach to analyzing risk management activities when multiple risks are bundled within a firm's assets or liabilities. They classify potentially bundled risks into two types: compensated risk and hedgeable risk. Firms earn rents for bearing compensated risk such as credit risk, and earn zero economic rents for bearing hedgeable risk such as interest rate risk. Because the costs associated with reducing hedgeable risk are lower than those associated with compensated risk, firms rationally eliminate hedgeable risks using either on- or off-balance sheet strategies. Thus, hedging becomes desirable even for risk-neutral or risk-seeking firms as a means of allocating risk. They denote this approach of optimal risk allocation among multiple risks with a firm as Coordinated Risk Management. The authors test the coordinated risk management approach by examining the interaction between interest rate risk (hedgeable risk) and credit risk (compensated risk) management at thrift institutions following conversion form a mutual-to-stock form of ownership. Although the concept of coordinated risk management applies to any firm, they use this sample because of data availability for the sample of converting thrifts and the control groups of non-converting institutions. The time-series findings are consistent with the coordinated management of interest rate risk and credit risk. In particular, immediately at conversion they observe decreased interest rate risk across institutions combined with a more gradual trend toward increasing credit risk. The negative relation between interest rate risk and credit risk is also significant in pooled tests. In addition, institutions use both on-balance sheet strategies and derivative instruments to reduce interest rate risk. This finding of decreasing interest rate risk occurs despite incentives to increase total risk following conversion. In light of the current discussions on the use of derivatives, this finding also indicates that thrifts use derivatives instruments for hedging rather than for speculative purposes. The cross-sectional results support models of optimal hedging. The authors provide evidence that interest rate risk hedging within an institution is positively associated with ex ante growth opportunities. They also provide evidence that managerial security holdings are a significant determinant of hedging activity. Finally, they report a negative association between managerial option holdings and interest rate risk hedging. Managers holding relatively high numbers of options maintain a risky position on-balance sheet with respect to unexpected changes in interest rates.