IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2836.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Incentive-Incompatible Deposit-Insurance Funds Fail

Author

Listed:
  • Edward J. Kane

Abstract

An incentive-incompatible deposit-insurance fund (IIDIF) is a scheme. Lot guaranteeing deposits at client institutions that deploys defective systems of information collection, client monitoring, and risk management. These defective systems encourage voluntary risk- taking by clients and by managers and politicians responsible for administering the fund. The paper focuses on how principal-agent conflicts and asymmetries in the distribution of information lead to myopic behavior by IIDIF managers and by politicians who appoint and constrain them. Drawing on data developed in legislative hearings and investigations and in sworn depositions, the paper documents that managers of IISIFs in Ohio and Maryland knew well in advance of their funds' 1985 failures that important clients were both economically insolvent and engaging in inappropriate forms of risk-taking. It also establishes that staff proposals for publicizing and bringing these clients' risk-taking under administrative control were repeatedly rejected. The analysis has a forward-looking purpose. Congress and federal regulators have managed the massively undercapitalized Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) in much the same way Ohio and Maryland officials did. Unless and until incentives supporting political, bureaucratic and private risk-taking are reformed, the possibility of a FSLIC meltdown cannot be dismissed. To encourage timely intervention into insolvencies developing in a deposit-insurance fund's client base, the most meaningful reforms would be to force the development and release of estimates of the market value of the insurance enterprise and to require fund managers to use the threat of takeover to force decapitalized clients to recapitalize well before they approach insolvency.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward J. Kane, 1989. "How Incentive-Incompatible Deposit-Insurance Funds Fail," NBER Working Papers 2836, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2836
    Note: ME
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2836.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward J. Kane, 1987. "Who Should Learn What From the Failure and Delayed Bailout of the ODGF?," NBER Working Papers 2260, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Edward J. Kane, 1985. "The Gathering Crisis in Federal Deposit Insurance," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262611856, December.
    3. Edward J. Kane, 1987. "DANGERS OF CAPITAL FORBEARANCE: THE CASE OF THE FSLIC AND “ZOMBIE” S&Ls," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 5(1), pages 77-83, January.
    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. William P. Osterberg & James B. Thomson, 1990. "The effect of subordinated debt and surety bonds on banks' cost of capital and on the value of federal deposit insurance," Working Papers (Old Series) 9012, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    2. Charles W. Calomiris, 1994. "Is the discount window necessary? a Penn Central perspective," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 31-55.
    3. Ross Levine & Norman Loayza & Thorsten Beck, 2002. "Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and Causes," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Leonardo Hernández & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Se (ed.),Banking, Financial Integration, and International Crises, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 031-084, Central Bank of Chile.
    4. Michael Gavin & Ricardo Hausmann, 1996. "Las raíces de las crisis bancarias: contexto macroeconómico," Research Department Publications 4027, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    5. James B. Thomson & Walker F. Todd, 1990. "An insider's view of the political economy of the too big to fail doctrine," Working Papers (Old Series) 9017, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    6. Michael Gavin & Ricardo Hausmann, 1996. "The Roots of Banking Crises: The Macroeconomic Context," Research Department Publications 4026, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    7. Brock, Philip L., 1998. "Financial safety nets and incentive structures in Latin America," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1993, The World Bank.
    8. Bruno Meyerhof Salama & Vicente P. Braga, 2023. "The case for private administration of deposit guarantee schemes," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(1), pages 51-65, March.
    9. Frederic S. Mishkin, 1992. "An Evaluation of the Treasury Plan for Banking Reform," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 133-153, Winter.
    10. Guillaume Arnould & Giuseppe Avignone & Cosimo Pancaro & Dawid Żochowski, 2022. "Bank funding costs and solvency," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(10), pages 931-963, July.
    11. Alan D. Morrison & Lucy White, 2005. "Crises and Capital Requirements in Banking," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1548-1572, December.
    12. Delis, Manthos D. & Iosifidi, Maria & Papadopoulos, Panagiotis, 2022. "Blessing or curse? Government funding of deposit insurance and corporate lending," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    13. Morrison, Alan D. & White, Lucy, 2010. "Reputational contagion and optimal regulatory forbearance," Working Paper Series 1196, European Central Bank.
    14. Gluzmann, Pablo & Guzman, Martin, 2017. "Assessing the robustness of the relationship between financial reforms and banking crises," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 32-47.
    15. George G. Kaufman, 2003. "Depositor liquidity and loss-sharing in bank failure resolutions," Working Paper Series WP-03-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    16. Morrison, Alan D. & White, Lucy, 2011. "Deposit insurance and subsidized recapitalizations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 3400-3416.
    17. Ho, Chia-Ling & Lai, Gene C. & Lee, Jin-Ping, 2014. "Financial reform and the adequacy of deposit insurance fund: Lessons from Taiwanese experience," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 57-77.

    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. Goldberg, Lawrence G. & Hudgins, Sylvia C., 1996. "Response of uninsured depositors to impending S&L failures: Evidence of depositor discipline," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 311-325.
    2. Robert A. Eisenbeis, 2004. "Agency problems and goal conflicts," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2004-24, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    3. Elijah Brewer III & Thomas H. Mondschean & Philip Strahan, 1996. "The Role of Monitoring in Reducing the Moral Hazard Problem Associated with Government Guarantees: Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 96-15, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    4. Gropp, Reint E. & Köhler, Matthias, 2010. "Bank owners or bank managers: who is keen on risk? Evidence from the financial crisis," ZEW Discussion Papers 10-013, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Jan Bartholdy & Glenn Boyle & Roger Stover, 2004. "Deposit insurance and the stock market: evidence from Denmark," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(6), pages 567-578.
    6. Laeven, Luc & Levine, Ross, 2009. "Bank governance, regulation and risk taking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 259-275, August.
    7. John B. Shoven & Scott B. Smart & Joel Waldfogel, 1992. "Real Interest Rates and the Savings and Loan Crisis: The Moral Hazard Premium," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 155-167, Winter.
    8. Joe Peek & Eric S. Rosengren, 1994. "Bank Real Estate Lending and the New England Capital Crunch," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 22(1), pages 33-58, March.
    9. Adolfo Barajas & Ralph Chami & Thomas Cosimano, 2004. "Did the Basel Accord Cause a Credit Slowdown in Latin America?," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2004), pages 135-182, August.
    10. Larry Wall & Robert Eisenbeis, 1999. "Financial Regulatory Structure and the Resolution of Conflicting Goals," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 16(2), pages 223-245, December.
    11. Ross Levine & Norman Loayza & Thorsten Beck, 2002. "Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and Causes," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Leonardo Hernández & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Se (ed.),Banking, Financial Integration, and International Crises, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 031-084, Central Bank of Chile.
    12. Robert A. Eisenbeis & George G. Kaufman, 2007. "Cross-border banking: challenges for deposit insurance and financial stability in the European Union," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2006-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    13. John H. Boyd & Mark Gertler, 1993. "US Commercial Banking: Trends, Cycles, and Policy," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1993, Volume 8, pages 319-377, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Edward J. Kane, 1987. "DANGERS OF CAPITAL FORBEARANCE: THE CASE OF THE FSLIC AND “ZOMBIE” S&Ls," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 5(1), pages 77-83, January.
    15. Martin Hellwig, 1986. "Risikoallokation in einem Marktsystem," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 122(III), pages 231-251, September.
    16. Richard J. Cebula, 1996. "Geographic Differentials In The Rate Of Return On Savings And Loan Assets," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 26(1), pages 41-53, Summer.
    17. Gary Gorton & Lixin Huang, 2004. "Liquidity, Efficiency, and Bank Bailouts," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 455-483, June.
    18. Michael D. Bordo, 1989. "The Contribution of "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960" to Monetary History," NBER Chapters, in: Money, History, and International Finance: Essays in Honor of Anna J. Schwartz, pages 15-78, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Rebel A. Cole & Robert A. Eisenbeis, 1996. "The Role of Principal‐Agent Conflicts in the 1980s Thrift Crisis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 24(2), pages 195-218.
    20. Kaliyev Kalizhan Sagatbekovich & Mira Nurmakhanova, 2021. "Bank Regulation in the Economies in Transition," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:2836. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.