Financial expertise among independent directors of U.S. banks is positively associated with balance-sheet and market-based measures of risk in the run-up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. While financial expertise is weakly associated with better performance before the crisis, it is strongly...

Interest rate risk is the exposure of a bank's financial condition to adverse movements in interest rates. Changes in interest rates affect a bank's earnings by changing its net interest income and also affect the underlying value of the bank's assets, liabilities and off-balance sheet...

We present a model where bank assets are a portfolio of risky debt claims and analyze stockholders' risk-taking behavior while considering the strategic interaction between debtors and creditors. We find that: (1) as the leverage of a bank increases, risk shifting by borrowers increases, even if...

We study risk management in financial institutions using data on hedging of interest rate and foreign exchange risk. We find strong evidence that institutions with higher net worth hedge more, controlling for risk exposures, across institutions and within institutions over time. For...

We present a stochastic simulation forecasting model for stress testing aimed at assessing banks' capital adequacy, financial fragility and probability of default. The paper provides a theoretical presentation of the methodology and the essential features of the forecasting model on which it is...

We present an empirical study of stress testing for portfolios of auto loans. We find that loans aged five years or more have significantly higher default probabilities. This finding raises concerns about the increasing maturity of auto loans in recent years. A challenge in stress testing is the...

This paper tests the effect of the establishment of risk management committee on bank risk, bank loan performance and bank value. The Dodd Frank Act of 2010 provides us with quasi-experimental variation on risk management committee establishment that facilitates identification. I present two...

Empirically, bank equity value is decreasing in the interest rate. Yet (i) many banks do not hedge interest rate risk and (ii) above 50% of hedging banks use derivatives to increase exposure. We model a bank's capital structure, and show that these facts are consistent with optimal hedging under...