IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boe/boeewp/0558.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Bankers' pay and excessive risk

Author

Listed:
  • Thanassoulis, John

    (Bank of England)

  • Tanaka, Misa

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

This paper studies the agency problem between bank management, shareholders, and the taxpayer. Executive bonuses increase in the probability the bank is too big to fail. Bank management recognise it is very likely optimal to select risky projects which exploit the taxpayer, implying project selection effort (eg due diligence) is more expensive to incentivise. This agency problem leads to too much risk for society, not for shareholders. Compensation rules aimed at solving management-shareholder agency problems — equity pay, deferred, including debt — do not correct the excessive risk taking. By contrast, malus and clawbacks can incentivise the bank management to make better risk choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Thanassoulis, John & Tanaka, Misa, 2015. "Bankers' pay and excessive risk," Bank of England working papers 558, Bank of England.
  • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/working-paper/2015/bankers-pay-exces-risk---march-2017-update---opt-pay-reg-for-too-big-to-fail-banks.pdf?la=en&hash=CB01006DD854309340B4E1DDAD9C2C3B377B06CF
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hendrik Hakenes & Isabel Schnabel, 2014. "Bank Bonuses and Bailouts," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(s1), pages 259-288, February.
    2. Divya Anantharaman & Vivian W. Fang & Guojin Gong, 2014. "Inside Debt and the Design of Corporate Debt Contracts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1260-1280, May.
    3. Xavier Freixas & Jean-Charles Rochet, 2013. "Taming Systemically Important Financial Institutions," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45, pages 37-58, August.
    4. Xavier Freixas & Jean-Charles Rochet, 2008. "Microeconomics of Banking, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262062704, April.
    5. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Martin Oehmke, 2013. "The Maturity Rat Race," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(2), pages 483-521, April.
    6. Alex Edmans & Xavier Gabaix & Tomasz Sadzik & Yuliy Sannikov, 2012. "Dynamic CEO Compensation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(5), pages 1603-1647, October.
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    8. O'Hara, Maureen & Shaw, Wayne, 1990. "Deposit Insurance and Wealth Effects: The Value of Being "Too Big to Fail."," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(5), pages 1587-1600, December.
    9. Jensen, Michael C & Murphy, Kevin J, 1990. "Performance Pay and Top-Management Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 225-264, April.
    10. PETER M. DeMARZO & YULIY SANNIKOV, 2006. "Optimal Security Design and Dynamic Capital Structure in a Continuous‐Time Agency Model," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2681-2724, December.
    11. Rangarajan K. Sundaram & David L. Yermack, 2007. "Pay Me Later: Inside Debt and Its Role in Managerial Compensation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1551-1588, August.
    12. John Thanassoulis, 2013. "Industry Structure, Executive Pay, and Short-Termism," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 402-419, June.
    13. Roberto Blanco & Simon Brennan & Ian W. Marsh, 2005. "An Empirical Analysis of the Dynamic Relation between Investment‐Grade Bonds and Credit Default Swaps," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2255-2281, October.
    14. Anat R. Admati & Peter M. DeMarzo & Martin F. Hellwig & Paul Pfleiderer, 2013. "Fallacies, Irrelevant Facts, and Myths in the Discussion of Capital Regulation: Why Bank Equity is Not Socially Expensive," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2013_23, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    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. Jokivuolle, Esa & Keppo, Jussi & Yuan, Xuchuan, 2015. "Bonus caps, deferrals and bankers' risk-taking," Research Discussion Papers 5/2015, Bank of Finland.
    2. Christian Eufinger & Andrej Gill, 2017. "Incentive-Based Capital Requirements," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(12), pages 4101-4113, December.
    3. Samuel Mwangi Kiemo & Tobias O. Olweny & Willy M. Muturi & Lucy W. Mwangi, 2019. "Bank-Specific Determinants of Commercial Banks Financial Stability in Kenya," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 9(1), pages 1-5.
    4. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2015_005 is not listed on IDEAS

    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. Jiang, Wei & Liu, Yunguo & Lobo, Gerald J. & Xu, Yue, 2019. "Deferred cash compensation and risk-taking: Evidence from the Chinese banking industry," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 432-448.
    2. Colonnello, Stefano & Curatola, Giuliano & Hoang, Ngoc Giang, 2017. "Direct and indirect risk-taking incentives of inside debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 428-466.
    3. Michael Hilmer, 2014. "Bailouts, Bonuses and Bankers' Short-Termism," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2014-17, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    4. Campbell, T. Colin & Galpin, Neal & Johnson, Shane A., 2016. "Optimal inside debt compensation and the value of equity and debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 336-352.
    5. Erica Jiang & Gregor Matvos & Tomasz Piskorski & Amit Seru, 2020. "Which Banks are (Over) Levered? Insights from Shadow Banks and Uninsured Leverage," NBER Working Papers 26903, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Thanassoulis, John & Tanaka, Misa, 2018. "Optimal pay regulation for too-big-to-fail banks," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 83-97.
    7. James, Hui L. & Benson, Bradley W. & Park, Jung Chul, 2020. "CEO fixed effects and inside debt compensation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 71-86.
    8. Alex Edmans & Xavier Gabaix, 2016. "Executive Compensation: A Modern Primer," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1232-1287, December.
    9. Patrick Bolton & Hamid Mehran & Joel Shapiro, 2015. "Executive Compensation and Risk Taking," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(6), pages 2139-2181.
    10. Stefano Colonnello & Giuliano Curatola & Shuo Xia, 2024. "When Does Linking Pay to Default Reduce Bank Risk?," Working Papers 2024: 07, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    11. Sebastian Gryglewicz & Barney Hartman-Glaser & Geoffery Zheng, 2020. "Growth Options, Incentives, and Pay for Performance: Theory and Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(3), pages 1248-1277, March.
    12. Jeffrey (Jun) Chen & Yun Guan & Ivy Tang, 2020. "Optimal Contracting of Pension Incentive: Evidence of Currency Risk Management in Multinational Companies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-29, February.
    13. Kim, Taeyeon & Kim, Hyun-Dong & Park, Kwangwoo, 2020. "CEO inside debt holdings and CSR activities," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 508-529.
    14. Carola Frydman & Dirk Jenter, 2010. "CEO Compensation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 75-102, December.
    15. Björn Imbierowicz & Jonas Kragh & Jesper Rangvid, 2018. "Time‐Varying Capital Requirements and Disclosure Rules: Effects on Capitalization and Lending Decisions," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(4), pages 573-602, June.
    16. Westman, Hanna, 2011. "The impact of management and board ownership on profitability in banks with different strategies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 3300-3318.
    17. Dong, Gang Nathan, 2014. "Excessive financial services CEO pay and financial crisis: Evidence from calibration estimation," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 75-96.
    18. Garrett, Daniel F. & Pavan, Alessandro, 2015. "Dynamic managerial compensation: A variational approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PB), pages 775-818.
    19. Koch, Christoffer & Okamura, Ken, 2019. "Why does the FDIC sue?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 255-275.
    20. Dirk Hackbarth & Alejandro Rivera & Tak-Yuen Wong, 2022. "Optimal Short-Termism," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6477-6505, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Executive compensation; bankers bonuses; risk-taking; financial regulation; return on equity; clawback; deferral;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:boe:boeewp:0558. 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: Digital Media Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boegvuk.html .

    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.