Overall, no! We show that the level and time series variation in cash flows for most bank activities are well matched by capital market portfolios with similar interest rate and credit risk to what banks report to hold. Ignoring operating expenses, bank loans earn high returns and transaction...

This paper shows that stable net-interest margins of banks are uninformative about banks' interest rate exposure. We show that neither deposits nor market power are essential for achieving stable net-interest margins (NIM) in long-short fixed income portfolios. We show that matching interest...

This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model to quantify the effects of bank capital requirements. Households' preferences for liquid assets imply a liquidity premium on deposits. The banking sector supplies deposits and has excessive risk-taking incentives. I show that the scarcity...