[...]The most obvious possible, and undesirable,impact on bank behaviour of risk-weighted capital requirementsis that excessive differentials in the weights appliedto different categories of assets might induce banks to substituteaway from highly risk-weighted assets. In the early1990s, U.S....

Advocates of fair value accounting believe that fair valuesprovide more relevant measures of assets, liabilities, andearnings than do historical costs. These advocates assertthat fair value accounting better reflects underlying economicvalues. The advantages of this method—and thecorresponding...

Bank supervisors have long recognized two types of shortcomingsin the Basle Accord’s risk-based capital (RBC)framework. First, the regulatory measures of “capital” maynot represent a bank’s true capacity to absorb unexpectedlosses. Deficiencies in reported loan loss reserves, forexample,...

Traditionally, regulation of banks has focused on the riskentailed in bank loans. Loans are typically nontradedassets. In recent years, another component of bank assetshas become increasingly important: assets actively tradedin the financial markets.1 These assets form the “tradingbook” of a...

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework forincentive-compatible regulation that would enable regulatorsto ensure that riskier banks maintain higher capitalholdings.Under the precommitment approach, a bankannounces the appropriate level of capital that covers themaximum value of...

[...]This paper focuses on the relative emphasis thatthe structure of regulatory capital places on formulas andon supervision. The two are not viewed as mutually exclusive,but as elements to which capital policy implicitlyassigns relative weights. We will see that in U.S. regulatorypractice,...

A large literature studies bank regulatory policies intendedto control moral hazard problems associated with depositinsurance and optimal regulatory design. Much of theanalysis has focused on uniform bank capital requirements,risk-based capital requirements, risk-based or fairly pricedinsurance...

I am delighted to be here today to address this importantconference on economic, supervisory, and regulatory issuesfacing foreign banks operating in the United States. I alsovery much appreciate the efforts of my colleague GeneLudwig and his staff at the Office of the Comptroller of theCurrency...