Assessing the risk-return trade-off in loan portfolios

This paper proposes a methodology to analyse the risk and return of large loan portfolios in a joint setting. I propose a tractable model to obtain the distribution of loan returns from observed interest rates and default frequencies. I follow a sectoral approach that captures the heterogeneous cyclical features of different kinds of loans and yields moments in closed form. I investigate the validity of mean–variance analysis with a value at risk constraint and study its relationship with utility maximisation. Finally, I study the efficiency of corporate and household loan portfolios in an empirical application to the Spanish banking system.