This paper presents a new database on the timing of systemic banking crises and policy responses to resolve them. The database covers the universe of systemic banking crises for the period 1970-2007, with detailed data on crisis containment and resolution policies for 42 crisis episodes, and...

For well over a decade many observers had warned that the European Union was ill-prepared in case of a financial storm because its market integration far outpaced its policy integration. This situation was well known to policy-makers but it was hoped that financial crises would wait until policy...

This paper examines the determinants of bank failures in the US banking system during the recent financial crisis. The analysis employs a dataset on the financial statements of FDIC-insured commercial banks and their bank holding companies, along with information on bank failures, mergers, and...

Why do some banks fail in financial crises while others survive? This paper answers this question by analysing the consequences of the Dutch financial crisis of the 1920s for 143 banks, of which 37 failed. Banks’ choices in balance sheet composition, corporate governance practices and...

Remarks hosted by the Institute of Regulation & Risk North Asia, Hong Kong

Remarks hosted by the Institute of Regulation & Risk North Asia, Tokyo, Japan.

"In the words of Milton, I would say that regulation should be designed to enable financial institutions to be 'sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.'" ; Remarks before the Cato Institute's 27th Annual Monetary Conference, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2009

Many people want to put size limits on “too big to fail” banks, given their risks to the broader economy. Such limits, however, could raise the cost of providing banking services by preventing banks from exploiting economies of scale.

Bank panics were a regular occurrence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The failure of one commodity speculator in October 1907 triggered a nationwide bank run. This publication tells how the panic developed, spread, and was resolved. A chronology is included along with a section of...