Hundreds of banks failed during the financial crisis of 2008 to 2010 causing significant social cost and enfeebling economic growth for years following. In the aftermath of the crisis, regulators responded, as always, with new regulations, the efficacy of which is debatable. For policy makers to enact effective regulation, they must understand the true cause of bank failures during crisis periods. We study the effects of 31 variables using univariate t-tests and probit regression to determine their influence on the probability of bank failure. We find that banks failed during the 2008 to 2010 financial crisis because of choices management made to accept more risk, specifically by having higher financial leverage, investing in higher risk loans in real estate and construction and by holding less liquid assets and fewer low risk loans like single family real estate loans. That is, the cause of US bank failures during the finance crisis was poor management.
This study uses the Cox Proportional Hazards Model, examining the operating and financial characteristics of banks as well as market and economic conditions, to demonstrate what caused US bank failures. Consistent effects indicate US banks were more likely to survive when having higher capital, loan to assets, short term debt securities, and return on assets. The failure rate was greater when their loan loss allowances and past due accounts were high. The results of this research will help banks, central banks, governments, and regulators to forecast which banks are in financial trouble and understand why. They can then take effective action to shore up the financial strength of the affected banks as well as the financial system.
Are Climate Change Champions favorable to investors? This is the first study of portfolio performance of a fourth generation SRI screening strategy based on United Nations Global Compact firms who are Climate Change Champions. The operational changes made by UNGC firms are real and disproves the notion that UNGC firms are merely green-washing. We find that after firms join UNGC, there is a positive effect on long term portfolio performance. UNGC firms have lower volatility and so less risk than their competitors. We find an apparent mispricing of lower risk in market returns as standard asset pricing models may not be pricing investors’ aversion to climate change risk and preference for firms actively combating climate change. This lends support to Fama and Frenchs’ theory that says that these “tastes” are valid factors to provide a more complete asset pricing model. Our study encourages investment in UNGC-CCC firms as we find there is no underperformance penalty against a conventional portfolio because the lower return reflects lower risk. Thus, our evidence suggests that “doing good for society is also good for business.”
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.