We identify the tension between dueling expectations of financial institutions as value-maximizing entities that also serve the public interest. We highlight the importance of information in addressing the public desire for banks to be safe yet innovative. Regulators can choose several...

Understanding the nature of systemic risk and identifying the channels of diffusion of the shocks are the necessary prerequisite to anticipate and manage successfully the insurgence of financial crises. In order to prevent financial distress and manage instability, the macroprudential regulator...

In this paper, we look at how the pre-crisis health of banks is related to the probability of receiving and repaying TARP capital. We find that financial performance characteristics that are related to the probability of receiving TARP funds differ for the healthiest (“over-achiever”) versus...

Using novel data on bank applications to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), we study the effect of government assistance on bank risk taking. Bailed-out banks initiate riskier loans and shift assets toward riskier securities after receiving government support. However, this shift in risk...

We employ a comprehensive data set and a variety of methods to provide evidence on the magnitude of large banks’ funding advantage in Canada, and on the extent to which market discipline exists across different securities issued by the Canadian banks. The banking sector in Canada provides a...

The financial sector incurred big losses during the recent financial collapse and recession. The losses occurred despite regulatory requirements imposed upon the financial services industry meant to ensure confidence and stability. This study analyzes the profitability and stock returns of...

The Basel capital framework plays an important role in risk management by linking a bank's minimum capital requirements to the riskiness of its assets. Nevertheless, the risk estimates underlying these calculations may be imperfect, and it appears that a cyclical bias in measures of...

We investigate whether financial markets reacted to the regulatory changes implied by the publication of the list of systemically important financial institutions (SIFI) and the new rules designed to address the too-big-to-fail problem of systemic banks. By applying event study methodology to a...

We study the real effect on banks’ credit supply after a negative liquidity shock. Controlling for demand effects, we take advantage of the exogenous international interbank market freeze in 2007-2008 to assess the causal relation between French banks’ liquidity risk and their lending. We...

Many contributions to the literature on competition in banking use the Panzar and Rosse test (1987). This test encompasses a variety of market outcomes assuming firms maximize profits. However, when applied to the banking industry, this assumption may not be always valid as banks sometimes may...