IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfsres/v43y2013i2p127-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bank Capital Requirements, Capital Structure and Regulation

Author

Listed:
  • John Harding
  • Xiaozhong Liang
  • Stephen Ross

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of capital requirements, deposit insurance and franchise value on a bank’s capital structure. We find that properly regulated banks voluntarily choose to maintain capital in excess of the minimum required. Central to this decision is both firm franchise value and the ability of regulators to place banks in receivership stripping equity holders of firm value. These features of our model help explain both the capital structure of the large mortgage Government Sponsored Enterprises and the recent increase in risk taking through leverage by financial institutions. The insights gained from the model are useful in guiding the discussion of financial regulatory reforms. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

Suggested Citation

  • John Harding & Xiaozhong Liang & Stephen Ross, 2013. "Bank Capital Requirements, Capital Structure and Regulation," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 127-148, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfsres:v:43:y:2013:i:2:p:127-148
    DOI: 10.1007/s10693-011-0127-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10693-011-0127-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10693-011-0127-6?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patrick Bolton & Xavier Freixas, 2006. "Corporate Finance and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 829-870.
    2. Douglas Gale & Onur Özgür, 2005. "Are Bank Capital Ratios too High or too Low? Incomplete Markets and Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 690-700, 04/05.
    3. Repullo, Rafael, 2004. "Capital requirements, market power, and risk-taking in banking," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 156-182, April.
    4. Van den Heuvel, Skander J., 2008. "The welfare cost of bank capital requirements," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 298-320, March.
    5. Blum, Jurg & Hellwig, Martin, 1995. "The macroeconomic implications of capital adequacy requirements for banks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 739-749, April.
    6. Dwight M. Jaffee, 2007. "Two key issues concerning the supervision of bank safety and soundness," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, issue Q1-2, pages 114-117.
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    8. Gennotte, Gerard & Pyle, David, 1991. "Capital controls and bank risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(4-5), pages 805-824, September.
    9. Franklin Allen & Elena Carletti & Robert Marquez, 2011. "Credit Market Competition and Capital Regulation," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(4), pages 983-1018.
    10. Besanko, David & Kanatas, George, 1996. "The Regulation of Bank Capital: Do Capital Standards Promote Bank Safety?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 160-183, April.
    11. Leland, Hayne E, 1994. "Corporate Debt Value, Bond Covenants, and Optimal Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1213-1252, September.
    12. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    13. Douglas W. Diamond & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2000. "A Theory of Bank Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2431-2465, December.
    14. 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.
    15. Reint Gropp & Florian Heider, 2010. "The Determinants of Bank Capital Structure," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 14(4), pages 587-622.
    16. Leland, Hayne E & Toft, Klaus Bjerre, 1996. "Optimal Capital Structure, Endogenous Bankruptcy, and the Term Structure of Credit Spreads," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(3), pages 987-1019, July.
    17. Merton, Robert C, 1978. "On the Cost of Deposit Insurance When There Are Surveillance Costs," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(3), pages 439-452, July.
    18. Samu Peura & Jussi Keppo, 2006. "Optimal Bank Capital with Costly Recapitalization," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(4), pages 2163-2202, July.
    19. Marshall, David A. & Prescott, Edward Simpson, 2001. "Bank capital regulation with and without state-contingent penalties," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 139-184, June.
    20. Gueyie, Jean-Pierre & Lai, Van Son, 2003. "Bank moral hazard and the introduction of official deposit insurance in Canada," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 247-273.
    21. Rochet, Jean-Charles, 1992. "Capital requirements and the behaviour of commercial banks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1137-1170, June.
    22. Cox, John C & Ingersoll, Jonathan E, Jr & Ross, Stephen A, 1985. "An Intertemporal General Equilibrium Model of Asset Prices," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 363-384, March.
    23. Keeley, Michael C, 1990. "Deposit Insurance, Risk, and Market Power in Banking," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(5), pages 1183-1200, December.
    24. Mark J. Flannery & Kasturi P. Rangan, 2008. "What Caused the Bank Capital Build-up of the 1990s?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 12(2), pages 391-429.
    25. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    26. Ethan Cohen-Cole & Burcu Duygan-Bump & José Fillat & Judit Montoriol-Garriga, 2008. "Looking behind the aggregates: a reply to “Facts and Myths about the Financial Crisis of 2008”," Supervisory Research and Analysis Working Papers QAU08-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    27. Buser, Stephen A & Chen, Andrew H & Kane, Edward J, 1981. "Federal Deposit Insurance, Regulatory Policy, and Optimal Bank Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(1), pages 51-60, March.
    28. Allen Berger & Robert DeYoung & Mark Flannery & David Lee & Özde Öztekin, 2008. "How Do Large Banking Organizations Manage Their Capital Ratios?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 34(2), pages 123-149, December.
    29. Abel Elizalde & Rafael Repullo, 2007. "Economic and Regulatory Capital in Banking: What Is the Difference?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 3(3), pages 87-117, September.
    30. John P. Harding & Stephen L. Ross, 2009. "Regulation of Large Financial Institutions: Lessons from Corporate Finance Theory," Working papers 2009-29, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    31. Kevin C. Murdock & Thomas F. Hellmann & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2000. "Liberalization, Moral Hazard in Banking, and Prudential Regulation: Are Capital Requirements Enough?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 147-165, March.
    32. Dwight Jaffee, 2003. "The Interest Rate Risk of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 24(1), pages 5-29, August.
    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. Christian Hott, 2022. "Leverage and Risk Taking under Moral Hazard," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 167-185, April.
    2. Kristoffer Milonas, 2018. "Bank Taxes, Leverage, and Risk," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 145-177, October.
    3. Atreya, Nikhil & Mjøs, Aksel & Persson, Svein-Arne, 2015. "Making Bank: Why High Bank Leverage is Optimal - for the Bank's Shareholders," Discussion Papers 2015/33, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    4. Douglas da Rosa München & Herbert Kimura, 2020. "Regulatory Banking Leverage: what do you know?," Working Papers Series 540, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    5. Roman Horváth & Jakub Seidler & Laurent Weill, 2014. "Bank Capital and Liquidity Creation: Granger-Causality Evidence," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 341-361, June.
    6. Alraheb, Tammuz H. & Nicolas, Christina & Tarazi, Amine, 2019. "Institutional environment and bank capital ratios," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-24.
    7. Sameh Jouida, 2019. "Bank capital structure, capital requirements and SRISK across bank ownership types and financial crisis: panel VAR approach," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 295-325, July.
    8. Bougias, Alexandros & Episcopos, Athanasios & Leledakis, George N., 2022. "The role of asset payouts in the estimation of default barriers," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    9. Vitor Oliveira & Clara Raposo, 2021. "The Determinants of European Banks' Capital Structure: Is There a Difference between Public and Private Banks?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 17(3), pages 155-202, September.
    10. Chernykh, Lucy & Cole, Rebel A., 2015. "How should we measure bank capital adequacy for triggering Prompt Corrective Action? A (simple) proposal," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 131-143.
    11. Sagara Dewasurendra & Pedro Judice & Qiji Zhu, 2019. "The Optimum Leverage Level of the Banking Sector," Risks, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-30, May.
    12. Laurent Maurin & Mervi Toivanen, 2015. "Risk, capital buffers and bank lending: The adjustment of euro area banks," Journal of Banking and Financial Economics, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 1(3), pages 113-129, May.

    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. John P. Harding & Xiaozhing Liang & Stephen L. Ross, 2007. "The Optimal Capital Structure of Banks: Balancing Deposit Insurance, Capital Requirements and Tax-Advantaged Debt," Working papers 2007-29, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2008.
    2. David Martinez-Miera & Rafael Repullo, 2019. "Monetary Policy, Macroprudential Policy, and Financial Stability," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 809-832, August.
    3. Stolz, Stéphanie, 2002. "The Relationship between Bank Capital, Risk-Taking, and Capital Regulation: A Review of the Literature," Kiel Working Papers 1105, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    4. Chen, Jiakai, 2022. "Market discipline and regulatory arbitrage: Evidence from ABCP liquidity guarantors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    5. Teixeira, João C.A. & Silva, Francisco J.F. & Fernandes, Ana V. & Alves, Ana C.G., 2014. "Banks’ capital, regulation and the financial crisis," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 33-58.
    6. Berger, Allen N. & Bouwman, Christa H.S., 2013. "How does capital affect bank performance during financial crises?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 146-176.
    7. Franklin Allen & Elena Carletti & Robert Marquez, 2011. "Credit Market Competition and Capital Regulation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(4), pages 983-1018.
    8. Jokipii, Terhi & Milne, Alistair, 2011. "Bank capital buffer and risk adjustment decisions," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 165-178, August.
    9. Moreira, Fernando, 2022. "Are we living in an illusion? A fresh look at the importance of bank capital in the quest for stability," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. João A. C. Santos, 2000. "Bank capital regulation in contemporary banking theory: a review of the literature," BIS Working Papers 90, Bank for International Settlements.
    11. Andreas Haufler & Christoph Lülfesmann, 2022. "Voluntary Equity, Project Risk, and Capital Requirements," CESifo Working Paper Series 9505, CESifo.
    12. Gambacorta, Leonardo & Shin, Hyun Song, 2018. "Why bank capital matters for monetary policy," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 35(PB), pages 17-29.
    13. Allen, Franklin & Carletti, Elena & Marquez, Robert, 2015. "Deposits and bank capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 601-619.
    14. Georges Dionne, 2003. "The Foundationsof Banks' Risk Regulation: A Review of Literature," THEMA Working Papers 2003-46, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    15. Ogawa, Toshiaki, 2022. "Welfare implications of bank capital requirements under dynamic default decisions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. Di Nicolo, G. & Gamba, A. & Lucchetta, M., 2011. "Capital Regulation, Liquidity Requirements and Taxation in a Dynamic Model of Banking," Discussion Paper 2011-090, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    17. Alraheb, Tammuz H. & Nicolas, Christina & Tarazi, Amine, 2019. "Institutional environment and bank capital ratios," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-24.
    18. Košak, Marko & Li, Shaofang & Lončarski, Igor & Marinč, Matej, 2015. "Quality of bank capital and bank lending behavior during the global financial crisis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 168-183.
    19. Peydró, José-Luis & Polo, Andrea & Sette, Enrico, 2020. "Risk Mitigating versus Risk Shifting: Evidence from Banks Security Trading in Crises," CEPR Discussion Papers 15473, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Klein, Philipp & Maidl, Christoph & Woyand, Corinna, 2021. "Bank ownership and capital buffers: How internal control is affected by external governance," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banks; Capital Structure; Capital Regulation; Financial Intermediation; Leverage; GSE; Investment Banks; G21; G28; G32; G38; M48;
    All these keywords.

    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
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - 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:kap:jfsres:v:43:y:2013:i:2:p:127-148. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.