Essay on Role Of Bank Capital

The banking industry has undergone major upheaval in recent years, largely due to the lingering recessionary environment and increased regulatory environment. Many banks have failed in the face of such tough environmental conditions. These conditions

This necessitated the need for development of regulatory measures for the industry. Bank regulation is a legal structure by which all financial

Credit risk is the risk that the bank will not be able to repay funds when they ask for them.

True. I believe risk management has become one of the primary concerns for bank management. Banks deal with an overwhelmingly large number of exchange securities, for example, ( loans, treasury bills, forex trading, ect...) This causes bank managers to have skills to properly analyse and manage what securities they trade and what type of contracts they enter into, ( such as in hedging etc...). If banks do not shift their focus on such new financial instruments they might go bankrupt as a result of excessive risks in such securities. Hence the focus of bank supervision has shifted to risk management, rather than on capital requirements. Although both are key to running a successful bank.

In addition to the above the internal incentive to bank should be reduced by requiring greater capital requirements as well as improving upon the definition of what qualifies to be capital. Further in line with the answer to question 3, risk management systems in financial institutions need to be redefined and strengthened to more comprehensively identify, evaluate, manage and monitor risks.

Since the onset of the financial crisis 2008, the sovereign debt crisis in western economies and the new financial regulation with Basel III coming up, the financial industry faces the challenge of reinventing itself. The ring-fence for Commercial and Investment Banking, and new economic and regulatory capital requirements will determine the kinds of products banks will be able to distribute. It will have a huge impact in the Investment Banking business, which will suffer tough regulation and supervisory procedures. At the same time, credit risk models will be reviewed because they have failed to predict the crisis of 2008. The current financial and economic crisis doesn’t have any precedent in the past.

First, high capital requirements could enable institutions to be more flexible facing financial stress and crises. Second, the CFPB strengthens the oversight responsibilities, lessens the regulatory infrastructure risky gaps, and improves the protection for consumers. Third, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) single-point-of-entry strategy installs standard procedures to wind down failed financial institutions,

The American Banking system has always focused on order, resiliency and the ability to withstand the storm. When comparing banking systems, it is required analyze both the strengths and the weaknesses of each system. While examining the American banking system, a key strength that is presented is the pride if its resiliency, “these improvements in the resiliency of the banking system have been reinforced by a series of key capital and liquidity rules that have been enacted in the United States, including the Basel III capital and liquidity frameworks as adopted in more stringent form” (The State of American Banking).

Recent studies have investigated the impact of the 2007-2009 financial crises on banks’ capital. Berger and Bouwman (2011) emphasised the importance of capital during financial crisis. Their empirical study concludes that banks with solid capital base have some benefits during the crisis than those that are poorly capitalised. Well capitalised banks are more able to withstand the shocks due to liquidity squeeze, and therefore had higher chances of surviving the crisis period. Other benefits accrued to well capitalised banks include increase in their market share and profitability, as customers withdrew their funds from less capitalised to a well-capitalised banks. This conclusion was also reinforced by a recent empirical study conducted Olivier de Bandt et al (2014) on a sample of large French banks over a period of 1993 – 2012. Similarly, Gambacorta and Marques-Ibanez (2011) demonstrate the existence of structural changes during the period of financial crisis. They conclude that banks with weaker core capital positions, greater dependence on market funding and on non-interest sources of income restricted the loan supply more strongly during the crisis period. Using a multi-country panel of banks, Demirgüç-Kunt, Detragiache and Merrouche (2010) find among others results, that during

Deregulation, innovation and globalisation has changed the way banks run from asset management to liability management, as well as the change from ‘mono’ to ‘multi-tasking’ and the increased competition in the sector as well as risk. The banking system has evolved drastically from the traditional mono-tasking institution to what it is now. This change in roles of asset and liability management could be one of the main reasons behind the global

Market risk is the risk associated with an investors day to day investments, that are affected by constant fluctuations in the markets. With investment banking, a banks reputation is a critical in its success, reputational risk describes the trustworthiness of a business. A firm with a poor reputation will not get as much business, meaning a bad reputation results in a loss in revenue. Concentration Risk is the risk showing the spread of a banks’ accounts to various debtors to whom the bank has lent to. The Basel II accord stated that ‘operational risk is the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems, or from external events’. This risk covers the very wade basis of a company’s operations, there are many different factors involved here: people, employees actions and company processes.

Credit risk is the risk of financial loss arising from a customer or counterparty’s failure to meet its contractual obligations. GE faces credit risk in its lending and leasing activities and derivative financial instruments activities.

The greater proportion of capital to total funds, the greater the protection to depositors. Banks maintain much lower capital levels than other businesses; currently bank capital accounts for 10% of total funds. Bankers prefer to use high amounts of leverage because they understand the role of leverage in increasing ROE. Banks believe that long term profit maximization can be best achieved if their banks are highly leveraged. Regulators are more concerned about the risk of bank failure, rather than the profits of the individual banks; their concern is protecting the economy from widespread bank distress.

The primary measure used by regulators and analysts to measure a bank’s capital strength is the Tier 1 capital ratio. Analyzing this ratio indicates the strength and the bank’s ability to

Banks typically need equity and need to make debts to fund loans and other operations. A bank’s indebtedness is primarily composed by deposits, borrowings owed to other banks, and bonds released by the bank itself in the capital market. On the other hand a bank’s equity is determined by subtracting the amount of a bank’s liabilities from the amount of its assets; for a bank, equity largely coincides with capital. Regulation of bank capital is necessary in modern economy because without it a bank could potentially hold very modest capital and in case of losses become insolvent and unable to repay its creditors, including savers and deposit holders. Capital serves as a cushion that should allow banks to withstand even substantial losses without