IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinin/v23y2014i4p437-470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to get banks to take less risk and disclose bad news

Author

Listed:
  • Harris, Milton
  • Raviv, Artur

Abstract

There is wide agreement that before the recent financial crisis, financial institutions took excessive risk in their investment strategies. At the same time, regulators complained that banks did not reveal the extent of their difficulties in a timely fashion thus reducing the effectiveness of government intervention to prevent or mitigate the deleterious effects of the financial crisis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how regulators can best use certain tools at their disposal to motivate banks to take less risk and to provide adverse information to regulators early. We argue that two tools, namely (i) allowing bank payouts to equity holders even when banks report they are in trouble and (ii) constraining banks’ future investment strategy when they are in trouble can achieve both goals. We show that, in some cases, it is optimal to use both of these tools in combination. That is, in such cases it is optimal to allow equity payouts when banks report they are in trouble, even though such payouts increase the incentive for banks to take excessive risk and even though these payments are financed by taxpayers. We also show that the more socially costly is constraining the bank’s portfolio selection or the more complex are the bank’s assets, the more likely it is that allowing larger payouts and fewer constraints is optimal. Finally we discuss how changes in bank capital requirements interact with inducing disclosure and preventing excessive risk taking.

Suggested Citation

  • Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 2014. "How to get banks to take less risk and disclose bad news," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 437-470.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinin:v:23:y:2014:i:4:p:437-470
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfi.2014.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042957314000357
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfi.2014.06.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grossman, Sanford J, 1981. "The Informational Role of Warranties and Private Disclosure about Product Quality," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 461-483, December.
    2. Roman Inderst & Holger M. Mueller, 2010. "CEO Replacement Under Private Information," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(8), pages 2935-2969, August.
    3. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    4. DeAngelo, Harry & Stulz, Rene M., 2013. "Why High Leverage Is Optimal for Banks," Working Papers 13-20, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center.
    5. Paul R. Milgrom, 1981. "Good News and Bad News: Representation Theorems and Applications," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 380-391, Autumn.
    6. Eisfeldt, Andrea L. & Rampini, Adriano A., 2008. "Managerial incentives, capital reallocation, and the business cycle," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 177-199, January.
    7. Jung, Wo & Kwon, Yk, 1988. "Disclosure When The Market Is Unsure Of Information Endowment Of Managers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 146-153.
    8. Pae, Suil, 2002. "Discretionary disclosure, efficiency, and signal informativeness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 279-311, August.
    9. Steven D. Levitt & Christopher M. Snyder, 1997. "Is No. News Bad News? Information Transmission and the Role of "Early Warning" in the Principal-Agent Model," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(4), pages 641-661, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jean-Edouard Colliard, 2019. "Strategic Selection of Risk Models and Bank Capital Regulation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 2591-2606, June.
    2. Avignone, Giuseppe & Altunbas, Yener & Polizzi, Salvatore & Reghezza, Alessio, 2021. "Centralised or decentralised banking supervision? Evidence from European banks," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Thomas M. Eisenbach & David O. Lucca & Robert M. Townsend, 2022. "Resource Allocation in Bank Supervision: Trade‐Offs and Outcomes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(3), pages 1685-1736, June.
    4. Caiazza, Stefano & Cotugno, Matteo & Fiordelisi, Franco & Stefanelli, Valeria, 2018. "The spillover effect of enforcement actions on bank risk-taking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 146-159.
    5. Samet, Anis & Boubakri, Narjess & Boubaker, Sabri, 2018. "Does public–private status affect bank risk taking? Worldwide evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 287-306.
    6. Natalya Zelenyuk & Robert Faff & Shams Pathan, 2020. "Size‐conditioned mandatory capital adequacy disclosure and bank intermediation," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(4), pages 4387-4417, December.
    7. Georgios Sermpinis & Serafeim Tsoukas & Ping Zhang, 2019. "What influences a bank's decision to go public?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 1464-1485, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ali, Ashiq & Klasa, Sandy & Yeung, Eric, 2014. "Industry concentration and corporate disclosure policy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 240-264.
    2. Richard Frankel & Joshua Lee & Zawadi Lemayian, 2018. "Proprietary costs and sealing documents in patent litigation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 452-486, June.
    3. Frenkel, Sivan & Guttman, Ilan & Kremer, Ilan, 2020. "The effect of exogenous information on voluntary disclosure and market quality," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 176-192.
    4. Jeremy Bertomeu & Davide Cianciaruso, 2018. "Verifiable disclosure," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 65(4), pages 1011-1044, June.
    5. Mayer, Simon, 2022. "Financing breakthroughs under failure risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 807-848.
    6. Jérémie Bertrand & Paul-Olivier Klein & Fotios Pasiouras, 2024. "National culture of secrecy and firms’ access to credit," Post-Print hal-04691594, HAL.
    7. Anna Boisits & Roland Königsgruber, 2016. "Information acquisition and disclosure by firms in the presence of additional available information," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 24(1), pages 177-205, March.
    8. Bertomeu, Jeremy & Marinovic, Iván & Terry, Stephen J. & Varas, Felipe, 2022. "The dynamics of concealment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 227-246.
    9. Hughes, J.S.John S. & Pae, Suil, 2004. "Voluntary disclosure of precision information," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 261-289, June.
    10. Elizabeth Blankespoor & Bradley E. Hendricks & Joseph Piotroski & Christina Synn, 2022. "Real-time revenue and firm disclosure," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 1079-1116, September.
    11. Konrad Lang, 2018. "Voluntary Disclosure and Analyst Forecast," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 23-36, January.
    12. Thakor, Anjan V., 2015. "Strategic information disclosure when there is fundamental disagreement," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 131-153.
    13. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    14. Suijs, Jeroen, 2007. "Voluntary disclosure of information when firms are uncertain of investor response," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 391-410, July.
    15. Arya, Anil & Mittendorf, Brian, 2013. "Discretionary disclosure in the presence of dual distribution channels," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 168-182.
    16. Chen, Jean J. & Cheng, Xinsheng & Gong, Stephen X. & Tan, Youchao, 2014. "Do higher value firms voluntarily disclose more information? Evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 18-32.
    17. Matthew Plosser & João A. C. Santos, 2014. "Banks' incentives and the quality of internal risk models," Staff Reports 704, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    18. Xu Jiang & Ying Xue, 2023. "Morale, performance and disclosure," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(1), pages 5-23, February.
    19. Gabriele Gratton & Richard Holden & Anton Kolotilin, 2015. "Timing Information Flows," Discussion Papers 2015-16, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    20. Viral V. Acharya & Peter DeMarzo & Ilan Kremer, 2011. "Endogenous Information Flows and the Clustering of Announcements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 2955-2979, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank Regulation; Information Disclosure;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfinin:v:23:y:2014:i:4:p:437-470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622875 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.