We examine the effects of opacity on bank valuation and the synchronicity of bank equity prices over the years 2000-2006 prior to the 2007 financial crisis. Investments in opaque assets are more profitable than transparent assets, and controlling for profitability, have larger valuation...

Conventional wisdom in banking argues that diversification tends to reduce bank risk and improve performance, but the recent financial crisis suggests that aggressive diversification strategies may have resulted in increased risk taking and poor performance. This paper addresses this important...

This study examines the impact of ownership structure on Chinese banks' risk-taking behaviours. We classify Chinese commercial banks into three categories based on the different types of controlling shareholder, and find that banks controlled by the government (GCBs) tend to take more risk than...

Inside debt compensation held by top officers of U.S. banks is negatively related to risk and risk-taking. The evidence reveals a robust and strongly negative relation between end-of-2006 inside debt and 2007-2009 bank-specific risk exposures in terms of lost stock market value, volatility, tail...

This paper investigates (1) how the composition of executive compensation is related to a bank's incentive to take excessive risk, (2) whether executive compensation in larger banks, especially the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banks, induces more severe moral hazard behavior, and (3) how the relation...

We examine changes in risk following US bank mergers in the period 1981-2014. Short-run increases in acquirer risk following mergers occur only in the first few mergers undertaken by the same acquirer, and only in systematic risk. The equity volatility of acquirers does not increase. Using a new...

Our results show that US banks with a relatively high share of non-interest income become riskier with a moving toward non-interest-generating activities, especially activities from investment banking, proprietary trading, etc. The findings also prove, although weakly, that banks with a...

We investigate whether factors beyond agency conflict are important in bank governance. Specifically, we examine the possibility that confusion and overlap between the roles of CEO and Chairman have important effects on bank risk and return. Using a new data set for UK banks over the period...

Using a large panel of US BHC over the 2001:Q1-2015:Q4, we investigate the risk-taking behaviors of banks within a comparison perspective – between public and private banks – where there exists substantial differences of asymmetry information and agency problems. We document evidence of...