This study investigates the determinants and outcomes of raising capital ratios upon the introduction of Basel II and III regulations. The evidence indicates that a bank is more likely to raise its capital base as its capital ratio is lowered. Although equity issuing is rarely used to raise the...

We formulate a continuous-time model of a deposit taking bank, operating subject to capital adequacy regulation, and where the bank's loans are exposed to default risk. The bank maximises their market value of equity by appropriately controlling loan and equity issuance, dividend payments, and...

Most observers agree that the excessive debt or leverage of systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) was a central reason why the housing crash of 2007-2009 led to a recession. The Dodd-Frank Act authorizes the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the Federal Reserve to adopt...

During the subprime crisis, the FDIC has shown, once again, laxity in resolving and closing insolvent institutions. Ronn and Verma (1986) call the tolerance level below which a bank closure is triggered the regulatory policy parameter. We derive a model in which we make this parameter stochastic...

In this paper, we empirically estimate the costs of delay in the FDIC's closures of 433 commercial banks between 2007 and 2014 based upon a counterfactual closure regime. We find that the costs of delay could have been as high as $18.5 billion, or 37% of the FDIC's estimated costs of closure of...

Banking is risky and prone to failure. Yet banking regulation is surprisingly not all that risk-sensitive in practice. I show that when the bank has an informational advantage over the regulator, designing risk-sensitive banking regulation gives rise to a trade-off: relying on the banking market...