This paper exploits the 1990 change in capital adequacy regulations to construct more powerful tests of capital and earnings management effects on bank loan loss provisions. We find strong support for the hypothesis that loan loss provisions are used for capital management. We do not find...

This study documents evidence on the choice of loan loss provisions by bank managers. In particular, we reexamine three hypotheses investigated by prior studies. First, we examine whether the 1990 change in capital adequacy regulations affects the relation between capital and loan loss...

This study provides evidence on the Interest Rate Risk (IRR) management activities of commercial banks including their use of derivatives. We find that (i) banks primarily focus on managing interest rate sensitivity of net income rather than the interest rate sensitivity of stock returns, (ii)...

Banks have become increasingly active in off-balance sheet activities, but little is known about the usefulness of disclosures of these activities. The unique quality about contingent commitments is that fees associated with these instruments are reported in the balance sheet while the face...

Accelerated share repurchases (ASRs) are credible commitments by firms to repurchase shares immediately. Including an ASR in a repurchase program reduces the flexibility that firms have to alter an announced program in response to subsequent changes in the price and liquidity of its shares,...

We examine the effect of corporate diversification on the equity-issue process in a sample of 641 equity issues from 1983 to 1994. We find that issues by diversified firms are viewed less negatively by the market than are issues by focused firms. This finding supports the hypothesis that...