IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bracre/v56y2024i6s0890838924002099.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The bright side of common ownership: Evidence from bank transparency

Author

Listed:
  • Park, Haerang
  • Pathan, Shams
  • Stathopoulos, Konstantinos
  • Marwick, Alex

Abstract

Over 74% of US banks share common ownership with other banks. Our analysis of a large sample of US banks reveals that those with greater common ownership demonstrate heightened transparency. This manifests as reduced discretion in loan loss provisions, improved financial statement readability, and enhanced comparability. We pinpoint three underlying mechanisms: decreased private information gathering, increased stock liquidity, and diminished managerial incentives for opacity. Furthermore, these commonly owned banks exhibit lower crash risk due to their improved transparency. Our findings hold after using various proxies and two endogeneity-reduction methods: a difference-in-differences analysis based on the 2009 Blackrock–Barclays Global Investors merger and an instrumental variable approach using Russell 2000 index inclusions. Overall, our study underscores the positive impact of common ownership in the banking sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Park, Haerang & Pathan, Shams & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos & Marwick, Alex, 2024. "The bright side of common ownership: Evidence from bank transparency," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bracre:v:56:y:2024:i:6:s0890838924002099
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2024.101445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890838924002099
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bar.2024.101445?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey J. Burks & Christine Cuny & Joseph Gerakos & João Granja, 2018. "Competition and voluntary disclosure: evidence from deregulation in the banking industry," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1471-1511, December.
    2. José Azar & Martin C. Schmalz & Isabel Tecu, 2018. "Anticompetitive Effects of Common Ownership," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1513-1565, August.
    3. Gus De Franco & S.P. Kothari & Rodrigo S. Verdi, 2011. "The Benefits of Financial Statement Comparability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 895-931, September.
    4. Bonsall, Samuel B. & Leone, Andrew J. & Miller, Brian P. & Rennekamp, Kristina, 2017. "A plain English measure of financial reporting readability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 329-357.
    5. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    6. Liangliang Jiang & Ross Levine & Chen Lin, 2016. "Competition and Bank Opacity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(7), pages 1911-1942.
    7. Jin, Li & Myers, Stewart C., 2006. "R2 around the world: New theory and new tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 257-292, February.
    8. Santhosh Ramalingegowda & Steven Utke & Yong Yu, 2021. "Common Institutional Ownership and Earnings Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 208-241, March.
    9. Peng, Lin, 2005. "Learning with Information Capacity Constraints," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(2), pages 307-329, June.
    10. Miguel A. Ferreira & Paul A. Laux, 2007. "Corporate Governance, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Information Flow," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 951-989, April.
    11. Efraim Benmelech & Eugene Kandel & Pietro Veronesi, 2010. "Stock-Based Compensation and CEO (Dis)Incentives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1769-1820.
    12. João Granja, 2018. "Disclosure Regulation in the Commercial Banking Industry: Lessons from the National Banking Era," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 173-216, March.
    13. Bipin Ajinkya & Sanjeev Bhojraj & Partha Sengupta, 2005. "The Association between Outside Directors, Institutional Investors and the Properties of Management Earnings Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 343-376, June.
    14. Manganaris, Panayotis & Beccalli, Elena & Dimitropoulos, Panagiotis, 2017. "Bank transparency and the crisis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 121-137.
    15. Chung, Kee H. & Elder, John & Kim, Jang-Chul, 2010. "Corporate Governance and Liquidity," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 265-291, April.
    16. Matthieu Bouvard & Pierre Chaigneau & Adolfo De Motta, 2015. "Transparency in the Financial System: Rollover Risk and Crises," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1805-1837, August.
    17. Admati, Anat R & Pfleiderer, Paul, 2000. "Forcing Firms to Talk: Financial Disclosure Regulation and Externalities," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(3), pages 479-519.
    18. Verrecchia, Robert E., 2001. "Essays on disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 97-180, December.
    19. Andreou, Panayiotis C. & Cooper, Ian & Louca, Christodoulos & Philip, Dennis, 2017. "Bank loan loss accounting treatments, credit cycles and crash risk," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 474-492.
    20. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Core, John E. & Guay, Wayne R., 2014. "Do independent directors cause improvements in firm transparency?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 383-403.
    21. Dou, Yiwei & Ryan, Stephen G. & Zou, Youli, 2018. "The Effect of Credit Competition on Banks’ Loan-Loss Provisions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 1195-1226, June.
    22. Rajan, Raghuram G, 1992. "Insiders and Outsiders: The Choice between Informed and Arm's-Length Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1367-1400, September.
    23. Tito Cordella & Eduardo Levy Yeyati, 1998. "Public Disclosure and Bank Failures," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 45(1), pages 110-131, March.
    24. Miguel Antón & Florian Ederer & Mireia Giné & Martin Schmalz, 2023. "Common Ownership, Competition, and Top Management Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(5), pages 1294-1355.
    25. Hutton, Amy P. & Marcus, Alan J. & Tehranian, Hassan, 2009. "Opaque financial reports, R2, and crash risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 67-86, October.
    26. Andrea Pawliczek & A. Nicole Skinner & Sarah L. C. Zechman, 2022. "Facilitating Tacit Collusion Through Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence from Common Ownership," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1651-1693, December.
    27. Alex Edmans & Gustavo Manso, 2011. "Governance Through Trading and Intervention: A Theory of Multiple Blockholders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(7), pages 2395-2428.
    28. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 1995. "The Effect of Credit Market Competition on Lending Relationships," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 407-443.
    29. Park, Jihwon & Sani, Jalal & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal, 2019. "Disclosure incentives when competing firms have common ownership," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 387-415.
    30. Martijn Cremers & Ankur Pareek & Zacharias Sautner, 2020. "Short-Term Investors, Long-Term Investments, and Firm Value: Evidence from Russell 2000 Index Inclusions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4535-4551, October.
    31. Rebecca Demsetz & Marc R. Saidenberg & Philip E. Strahan, 1996. "Banks with something to lose: the disciplinary role of franchise value," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 2(Oct), pages 1-14.
    32. Robert M. Bushman & Christopher D. Williams, 2015. "Delayed Expected Loss Recognition and the Risk Profile of Banks," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 511-553, June.
    33. Calomiris, Charles W & Kahn, Charles M, 1991. "The Role of Demandable Debt in Structuring Optimal Banking Arrangements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(3), pages 497-513, June.
    34. Khoo, Joye & Zheng, Chen & Pathan, Shams, 2024. "The beneficial effect of common ownership: Evidence from bank liquidity creation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    35. Bushee, Brian J. & Leuz, Christian, 2005. "Economic consequences of SEC disclosure regulation: evidence from the OTC bulletin board," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 233-264, June.
    36. Huizinga, Harry & Laeven, Luc, 2012. "Bank valuation and accounting discretion during a financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 614-634.
    37. Park, Haerang & Oh, Byungmin, 2022. "Common ownership and bank stability: Evidence from the U.S. banking industry," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    38. Bushee, Brian J. & Matsumoto, Dawn A. & Miller, Gregory S., 2003. "Open versus closed conference calls: the determinants and effects of broadening access to disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-3), pages 149-180, January.
    39. Chan, Yuk-Shee & Greenbaum, Stuart I. & Thakor, Anjan V., 1986. "Information reusability, competition and bank asset quality," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 243-253, June.
    40. Franklin Allen & Douglas Gale, 2004. "Financial Intermediaries and Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(4), pages 1023-1061, July.
    41. Beatty, Anne & Liao, Scott, 2014. "Financial accounting in the banking industry: A review of the empirical literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 339-383.
    42. Guillermo Llorente & Roni Michaely & Gideon Saar & Jiang Wang, 2002. "Dynamic Volume-Return Relation of Individual Stocks," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 1005-1047.
    43. Beatty, Anne & Liao, Scott & Yu, Jeff Jiewei, 2013. "The spillover effect of fraudulent financial reporting on peer firms' investments," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 183-205.
    44. Karthik Balakrishnan & Aytekin Ertan, 2019. "Bank asset transparency and credit supply," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1359-1391, December.
    45. Basu, Sudipta & Vitanza, Justin & Wang, Wei, 2020. "Asymmetric loan loss provision models," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    46. José Azar & Sahil Raina & Martin Schmalz, 2022. "Ultimate ownership and bank competition," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 227-269, March.
    47. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    48. Diamond, Douglas W, 1985. "Optimal Release of Information by Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1071-1094, September.
    49. Jie (Jack) He & Jiekun Huang, 2017. "Product Market Competition in a World of Cross-Ownership: Evidence from Institutional Blockholdings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(8), pages 2674-2718.
    50. Flannery, Mark J, 1998. "Using Market Information in Prudential Bank Supervision: A Review of the U.S. Empirical Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(3), pages 273-305, August.
    51. Nier, Erlend & Baumann, Ursel, 2006. "Market discipline, disclosure and moral hazard in banking," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 332-361, July.
    52. Boone, Audra L. & White, Joshua T., 2015. "The effect of institutional ownership on firm transparency and information production," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 508-533.
    53. Harford, Jarrad & Kecskés, Ambrus & Mansi, Sattar, 2018. "Do long-term investors improve corporate decision making?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 424-452.
    54. Nguyen, Phuong-Anh & Kecskés, Ambrus & Mansi, Sattar, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility create shareholder value? The importance of long-term investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    55. John Gallemore, 2023. "Bank financial reporting opacity and regulatory intervention," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1765-1810, September.
    56. Wruck, Karen H. & Wu, YiLin, 2021. "The relation between CEO equity incentives and the quality of accounting disclosures: New evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    57. Gilje, Erik P. & Gormley, Todd A. & Levit, Doron, 2020. "Who's paying attention? Measuring common ownership and its impact on managerial incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 152-178.
    58. Jang, In Ji & Kang, Namho & Yezegel, Ari, 2022. "Common ownership, price informativeness, and corporate investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    59. Darrough, Masako N. & Stoughton, Neal M., 1990. "Financial disclosure policy in an entry game," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1-3), pages 219-243, January.
    60. Bresnahan, Timothy F. & Salop, Steven C., 1986. "Quantifying the competitive effects of production joint ventures," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 155-175, June.
    61. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:1:p:65-98 is not listed on IDEAS
    62. Edward J. Zajac & James D. Westphal, 1994. "The Costs and Benefits of Managerial Incentives and Monitoring in Large U.S. Corporations: When is More not Better?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(S1), pages 121-142, December.
    63. Furlong, Frederick T. & Keeley, Michael C., 1989. "Capital regulation and bank risk-taking: A note," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 883-891, December.
    64. Jere R. Francis & Shawn Huang & Inder K. Khurana & Raynolde Pereira, 2009. "Does Corporate Transparency Contribute to Efficient Resource Allocation?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 943-989, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Khoo, Joye & Zheng, Chen & Pathan, Shams, 2024. "The beneficial effect of common ownership: Evidence from bank liquidity creation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Liangliang Jiang & Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Wensi Xie, 2022. "Deposit Supply and Bank Transparency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3834-3855, May.
    3. Yiwei Fang & Iftekhar Hasan & Woon Sau Leung & Qingwei Wang, 2019. "Foreign ownership, bank information environments, and the international mobility of corporate governance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1566-1593, December.
    4. Park, Jihwon & Sani, Jalal & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal, 2019. "Disclosure incentives when competing firms have common ownership," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 387-415.
    5. Santhosh Ramalingegowda & Steven Utke & Yong Yu, 2021. "Common Institutional Ownership and Earnings Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 208-241, March.
    6. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    7. Jang, In Ji & Kang, Namho & Yezegel, Ari, 2022. "Common ownership, price informativeness, and corporate investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. Hou, Canran & Liu, Huan, 2023. "Institutional cross-ownership and stock price crash risk," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    9. Wang, Xiaoliang & Zhao, Wei & Liu, Ruizhi, 2025. "Common institutional investors and the tone of key audit matters," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    10. Ziwei Wang & Chunfeng Wang & Zhenming Fang, 2023. "Common institutional ownership and corporate misconduct," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 102-136, January.
    11. Michael L. McIntyre & Yinlin Zhang, 2020. "Depositors’ discipline, banks’ accounting discretion, and depositors’ expectations of implicit government guarantees," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(3), pages 256-277, September.
    12. Jungherr, Joachim, 2018. "Bank opacity and financial crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 157-176.
    13. Tian, Haowen & Wang, Junkai & Wu, Sirui, 2024. "Supply chain vertical common ownership and cost of loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    14. Kristopher Gerardi & Michelle Lowry & Carola Schenone, 2023. "A Critical Review of the Common Ownership Literature," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2023-17, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    15. Roychowdhury, Sugata & Shroff, Nemit & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2019. "The effects of financial reporting and disclosure on corporate investment: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    16. Nagar, Venky & Schoenfeld, Jordan, 2021. "Shareholder monitoring and discretionary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1).
    17. Xu, Tianli & Xu, Longbing & Zhu, Siyuan, 2023. "Common ownership and executive pay-for-performance sensitivity: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    18. Chen, Qi & Goldstein, Itay & Huang, Zeqiong & Vashishtha, Rahul, 2022. "Bank transparency and deposit flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 475-501.
    19. Jinyong Kim & Mingook Kim & Yongsik Kim, 2020. "Bank Transparency and the Market’s Perception of Bank Risk," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 115-142, December.
    20. Gopalan, Yadav, 2022. "The effects of ratings disclosure by bank regulators," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - 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:eee:bracre:v:56:y:2024:i:6:s0890838924002099. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-british-accounting-review .

    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.