IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jfinqa/v55y2020i3p955-988_8.html

Foreign Investment, Regulatory Arbitrage, and the Risk of U.S. Banking Organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Frame, W. Scott
  • Mihov, Atanas
  • Sanz, Leandro

Abstract

This study investigates the implications of cross-country differences in banking regulation and supervision for the international subsidiary locations and risk of U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs). We find that BHCs are more likely to operate subsidiaries in countries with weaker regulation and supervision and that such location decisions are associated with elevated BHC risk and higher contribution to systemic risk. The quality of BHCs’ internal controls and risk management plays an important role in these location choices and risk outcomes. Overall, our study suggests that U.S. banking organizations engage in cross-country regulatory arbitrage, with potentially adverse consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Frame, W. Scott & Mihov, Atanas & Sanz, Leandro, 2020. "Foreign Investment, Regulatory Arbitrage, and the Risk of U.S. Banking Organizations," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(3), pages 955-988, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:55:y:2020:i:3:p:955-988_8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022109019000267/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Temesvary, Judit & Wei, Andrew, 2024. "Domestic lending and the pandemic: How does banks’ exposure to COVID-19 abroad affect their lending in the United States?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    2. Chronopoulos, Dimitris K. & Wilson, John O.S. & Yilmaz, Muhammed H., 2023. "Regulatory oversight and bank risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. G Andrew Karolyi & John Sedunov & Alvaro G. Taboada, 2023. "Cross-Border Bank Flows and Systemic Risk," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(5), pages 1563-1614.
    4. Sascha Kolaric & Florian Kiesel & Dirk Schiereck, 2025. "Banking market consolidation in Asia: Evidence from acquirers, targets, and rivals," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 2215-2239, July.
    5. Yildirim, Canan & Kasman, Adnan & Gulamhussen, Mohamed Azzim, 2023. "Efficiency of multinational banks: Impacts of geographic and product loci," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).
    6. Fricke, Daniel & Greppmair, Stefan & Paludkiewicz, Karol, 2024. "You can’t always get what you want (where you want it): Cross-border effects of the US money market fund reform," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    7. Berger, Allen N. & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Roman, Raluca A., 2022. "Geographic deregulation and banks’ cost of equity capital," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    8. Canan Yildirim & Adnan Kasman & Mohamed Azzim Gulamhussen, 2023. "Efficiency of multinational banks: Impacts of geographic and product loci," Post-Print hal-04191115, HAL.
    9. Thomas Conlon & Xing Huan & Steven Ongena, 2020. "Operational Risk Capital," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 20-55, Swiss Finance Institute.
    10. Ata Can Bertay & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Harry Huizinga, 2024. "Are International Banks Different? Evidence on Bank Performance and Strategy," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 101-142, October.
    11. Mikko Makinen & Laura Solanko, 2018. "Determinants of Bank Closures: Do Levels or Changes of CAMEL Variables Matter?," Russian Journal of Money and Finance, Bank of Russia, vol. 77(2), pages 3-21, June.
    12. Frame, W. Scott & Lazaryan, Nika & McLemore, Ping & Mihov, Atanas, 2024. "Operational loss recoveries and the macroeconomic environment: Evidence from the U.S. banking sector," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    13. Chen, Jiakai, 2022. "Market discipline and regulatory arbitrage: Evidence from ABCP liquidity guarantors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    14. Joseph, Kerron & Nguyen, Ca & Wald, John K., 2025. "Renegotiation of international loans, capital regulation, and monetary policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    15. Paligorova, Teodora & Temesvary, Judit, 2022. "Foreign banks’ asset reallocation in response to the introduction of the intermediate holding company rule of 2016," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    16. Clark, Brian & Ebrahim, Alireza, 2022. "Risk shifting and regulatory arbitrage: Evidence from operational risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    17. Tai-Yuan Chen & Yi-Chun Chen & Mingyi Hung, 2022. "Uneven regulatory playing field and bank transparency abroad," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(3), pages 379-404, April.
    18. Berger, Allen N. & Curti, Filippo & Mihov, Atanas & Sedunov, John, 2022. "Operational Risk is More Systemic than You Think: Evidence from U.S. Bank Holding Companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    19. Lyu, Chaofeng & Xiao, Ziheng & Pu, Yun, 2023. "Financial openness and firm exports: Evidence from Foreign-owned Banks in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Pelster, Matthias, 2024. "Leverage constraints and investors' choice of underlyings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    21. Miao, Wenlong & Ma, Yuxian & Xu, Haoran, 2025. "Capital regulation, regulatory avoidance, and bank systemic risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    22. Allen N. Berger & Omrane Guedhami & Destan Kirimhan & Xinming Li & Daxuan Zhao, 2024. "Universal banking powers and liquidity creation," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(6), pages 764-781, August.
    23. Sedunov, John, 2021. "Federal reserve intervention and systemic risk during financial crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    24. McLemore, Ping & Mihov, Atanas & Sanz, Leandro, 2022. "Global banks and systemic risk: The dark side of country financial connectedness," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • 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

    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:cup:jfinqa:v:55:y:2020:i:3:p:955-988_8. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jfq .

    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.