Šio darbo tikslas yra įvertinti bankinio sektoriaus koncentracijos lygio įtaką bankų veiklos rezultatams. Siekiant tai įgyvendinti, pirmoje šio darbo dalyje yra pateikiamos ir įvertinamos mokslinių empirinių tyrimų išvados apie koncentracijos įtaką komercinių bankų pelningumo, paskolų portfelio kokybės, kapitalo pakankamumo ir likvidumo rodikliams. Antroje šio darbo dalyje yra formuluojama tyrimo metodologija: pateikiami tirtini komercinių bankų finansiniai rodikliai, pateikiami ES šalių pasirinkimo kriterijai, formuluojamos bei pagrindžiamos esminės tyrimo hipotezės, pateikiamas tyrimo loginis nuoseklumas. Paskutinėje šio darbo dalyje yra atliekamas tyrimas, kuris apima 2006 – 2011m. laikotarpį. Tyrimo išvados atskleidė, kad koncentracija bankų sektoriuje teigiamai įtakoja pelningumo lygių, kapitalo pakankamumo pokyčius bankuose. / The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the banking sectors‘ concentration level on their financial performance. Firstly, analysis of theoretical literature about the impact of concentration level on banking sector performance is conducted. I analyze four different groups of financial indicators: profitability, liquidity, capital ratios and non-performing loans. Secondly, a methology of this paper is presented: a list of financial indicators is given, five main hyptothesis are formulated and validated, cryteria for country selection from EU region is presented, logical sequence of the research is also given. Finally, an analysis is conducted for a 2006 – 2011 time period. Research showed that concentration in the banking sector positively affets the profitability and capital ratios.

Vilken finansieringsstrategi företag bör använda sig av för att uppnå så hög lönsamhet som möjligt, har varit ämne för intensiv forskning alltsedan Modigliani & Millers identifierade samband mellan skuldsättningsgrad och lönsamhet 1958. Då europeiska banker är ålagda med regleringar står de inför en problematisk situation där de behöver skapa högre avkastning för investerare, och samtidigt leva upp till de riskbegränsningar regelverken föreskriver. De ledande teorierna inom området står i konflikt med varandra där både finansiering genom skulder respektive eget kapital förespråkas för att uppnå optimal kapitalstruktur. Följaktligen uppstår frågan om banker bör finansiera sin verksamhet genom ökad skuldsättningsgrad eller höjd soliditet. Syftet med denna studie är att analysera kapitalstrukturens inverkan på bankers lönsamhet inom EU under perioden 2006-2012. För att undersöka relationen närmare avser studien vidare att analysera vilka underliggande faktorer som påverkar bankers val av kapitalstruktur. För att uppnå syftet har en kvantitativ metod tillämpats där två separata dataset har analyserats genom balanserad paneldata. Resultaten har senare diskuterats med hjälp av tidigare forskning inom problemområdet. Resultatet tyder på att lägre risktagande och finansiell stabilitet är två nyckelord inom den europeiska banksektorn, där stabila banker har kunnat finansiera sig till en lägre kostnad och således stärkt lönsamheten under den studerade perioden. Det kan även bekräftas att skuldfinansiering har haft en positiv hävstångseffekt på för de mest lönsamma bankerna samt att stora banker har visat sig mindre lönsamma. Gällande bankers val av kapitalstruktur har huvudsakligen storlek och tillväxt en negativ inverkan på soliditetsnivån medan räntabilitet på eget kapital har en positiv inverkan. / Determining how a company should finance its business to achieve greater profitability has been a popular topic for scholars since Modigliani & Miller introduced the hypothesis of a positive correlation between leverage and profitability in 1958. Since European banks operate under governmental restrictions, they face problematic situations when they have to deliver satisfactory returns to investors while maintaining strong capital ratios. The predominant theories in some respect contradict one another because they advocate funding through both equity and liabilities. Consequently, an issue arises for banks in their decision-making in regards to whether they should use or increase leverage or increase the equity-to-asset ratio, in order to become more profitable. The purpose of this study is to investigate how capital structure affected the profitability in commercial banks within the EU from 2006-2012. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate the factors influencing capital structure. Specifically, this study further aims to investigate factors that affect the equity-to-asset ratio in commercial banks. This study utilizes a quantitative approach in which balanced panel data has been separated into two sets and further analyzed through multiple regression models. Moreover, the results have been discussed and analyzed by applying generally accepted findings and principles. The results imply that both low risk-taking, and over all stability of the commercial banking sector have significantly contributed to the profitability of the European banking sector. Banks with a low level of risk have been able to benefit from cheaper funding, which has had a positive effect on their profitability. Although, the authors also conclude that leverage has had a positive effect on profitability concerning the most profitable banks. There is also a negative relationship between size and profitability. Moreover, the authors conclude that size and growth have negatively affected the capital ratio of commercial banks within the EU, while return on equity has had a positive effect on the capital ratio.

This study investigates the effectiveness of public sector roles in facilitating corporate social responsibility (CSR) in commercial banks in the United States and the United Kingdom and the role of national context in CSR activities of commercial banks. It examines CSR as measured by MSCI ESG (environmental, social and governance) Global Socrates ratings across five categories of ESG (environment, employee & supply chain, customers, corporate governance & ethics, and community & society) in six commercial banks. The study compared differences in ESG rankings to categorized CSR-related government bodies, legislation and policies according to four possible public sector roles as outlined by the World Bank: mandating, facilitating. endorsing or partnering for CSR. The principal conclusion is that national context seems to play a role in CSR activities of commercial banks and that certain CSR-related public policy tools appear to be more effective at supporting CSR than others. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy / MA / Thesis

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine and analyze the banker's acceptance and the bankers' acceptance market. A banker's acceptance is a money market instrument used to finance the export, import, movement, and storage of goods; it begins as a trade draft, and it is termed accepted when a commercial bank guarantees payment. The banker's acceptance represents an historical evolution of the medieval bill of exchange. The banker's acceptance as we know it today first appeared in England in the 1820s. The birth of the banker's acceptance in the United States occurred with passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. A survey was made of the twenty largest U.S. commercial banks in order to determine certain perceived characteristics of the banker's acceptance and the bankers' acceptance market. As a result of the survey, a new money market instrument is suggested. The new money market instrument is to be called a Banker's Acceptance Participation Certificate.

Purpose - the purpose of this thesis is to investigate earnings management in an emerging economy without market force. We use discretionary loan loss provisions (DLLP) to proxy earnings management, which constitute a material portion of the total accruals in the banking industry. We examine this abnormal behavior in the financial statements prepared under US GAAP and IFRS. Specifically, we try to find the differences in managerial opportunistic behavior that might exist in the two accounting regimes. We also examine the micro economy and regulatory factors that might influence the earnings behavior in the banks. Design/method/approach - This empirical investigation uses an unbalanced panel data of five commercial banks in Liberia for a period of six years, 2010 to 2012 before and 2013 to 2016 after IFRS adoption. The data generated from the audited financial statements of the commercial banks were analyzed with two sample t test and multiple linear regression. We also run robustness check with same statistical procedures to validate the results. Findings - the empirical results show a statistically insignificant difference in earnings management after the adoption of IFRS, which means the introduction of IFRS did not have significant effect on earnings management practices in the banks. Additionally, we found no significant relationship between Liberia GDP growth and DLLP. Finally, we discovered a positive insignificant relationship between the capital adequacy ratio and DLLP as predicted. Originality/value - the result of this thesis advances the understanding of earnings management under US GAAP and IFRS in an emerging economy. As most of the existing literature conducted on earnings management are mainly focused on developed economy with capital market and data from non-financial institutions. This thesis fills a gap in the existing literature by studying managerial discretion in an unusual environment. The results of our findings inform regulators, investors, auditors and standards setters considering IFRS adoption.

A eficiência na criação do valor para o acionista é o foco principal das empresas. Uma das formas de se medir essa eficiência é por meio do Valor Econômico Agregado (VEA). Em uma instituição financeira, limitada nesse estudo aos maiores bancos comerciais e múltiplos com ações cotadas na BM&FBOVESPA, os tomadores de decisão também devem buscar essa eficiência. Além disso, a necessidade dos bancos por financiamentos, da mesma forma que nas empresas privadas, exige o atendimento dos requisitos impostos pelo agente que irá fornecer o capital. Nesse sentido, para atender ao acionista, o banco deve promover a agregação de valor. O VEA demonstra essa criação de valor e, para melhor gerenciá-lo, devem ser identificadas, monitoradas e gerenciadas as variáveis que influenciam nessa medida. Diante disso, o presente estudo identificou os principais direcionadores do valor econômico agregado dos maiores bancos comerciais no Brasil: Banco do Brasil, Itaú e Bradesco, utilizando regressão linear múltipla. Por meio da análise dos dados individualizados, referentes ao período de 1996 a 2009, constatou-se que existe um grupo de direcionadores que explicam grande parte das alterações do VEA. Esses direcionadores não foram iguais para os bancos privados e o público em análise, e mesmo entre os privados os resultados não foram coincidentes. Embora algumas variáveis tenham influenciado o VEA, identificou-se que os direcionadores exercem diferentes impactos em cada uma das instituições. Isso indica que a análise deve ser individual e que o tipo de controle também não define as variáveis que mais impactam o VEA. / The efficiency in the creation of the value for the shareholder is the main focus of the companies. One of the ways of measuring this efficiency is through the Economic Value Added (EVA). In a financial institution, limited in this study to the largest and multiple commercial banks and with shares quoted in BM&FBOVESPA, the decision makers should also look for that efficiency. Besides, the need of the banks for financings, in the same way that in the private companies, demands the fulfillment of the requirements imposed by the agent that will supply the capital. In that sense, to assist the shareholder, the bank should promote the aggregation of value. EVA demonstrates this creation of value and, for its better management, the variables that influence in that measure should be identified, monitored and managed. Hence, the present study identified the main determinants of the economical value added from the largest commercial banks in Brazil: Bank of Brazil, Itaú and Bradesco, using multiple linear regression. Through the analyze of the individualized data, regarding the period from 1996 through 2009, it was verified that there is a group of determinants that explain great part of the alterations of EVA. These determinants were not the same for the private and the public banks in analysis, and even among the private ones the results were not coincident. Although some variables have influenced EVA, it has been identified that the determinants provoke different impacts in each one of the institutions. That indicates that the analysis should be individual and that the control type also does not define the variables that impact EVA the most.

Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) play a key role in financial markets by helping to reduce informative asymmetry between lenders and investors, on one side, and issuers on the other side, with regard to the creditworthiness of banks or countries. This crucial role has expanded alongside financial globalisation and received an additional boost from Basel II which integrates the ratings of CRAs into the rules for setting weights for credit risk. Ratings adjustment tends to be sticky, lagging behind markets, and often overreact when they do change. This overreaction may have aggravated the recent financial crises, contributing to financial instability and cross-country contagion. Criticism has been especially directed towards the high degree of concentration of the ratings industry. Promotion of competition may require policy action at the international level to encourage the establishment of new agencies and to discover alternative rules or regulatory requirements in order to achieve promising results. The recent growth of Middle Eastern and North African countries (MENA) and their commercial banking system has increased the need of paying widespread attention to this region of the world. This thesis crucially identifies, and estimates, the robust determinants of credit ratings for MENA countries and their commercial banks, incorporating a set of bank level accounting and financial risk factors, as well as country-specific characteristics, including indicators for regulatory, supervision, legal and economic environments. The research contributes, firstly, to the theoretical literature on credit ratings industry by reviewing extant methodologies specifically as they apply to banks and sovereign countries. Secondly, it conducts a systematic, cross-country empirical investigation using panel data econometric methodology for the purpose of estimating MENA countries sovereign and bank credit rating models. Thirdly, it provides tangible and statistically significant evidence on the different factors that determines the estimation of credit ratings and influencing bank's risk. The extant literature reviewed serves as a basis to achieve and develop the research aim, objectives and hypotheses of the thesis. The research then constructs an appropriate panel dataset from different sources, containing bank-level and country-level information for a sample of 108 commercial banks covering 13 MENA countries over the period 2000 - 2012. The methodological framework for estimating credit rating models (linear regression, logit and probit) is also reviewed and the procedures for panel data estimation are implemented using the econometric package STATA (version 13). All relevant data are drawn from public sources including Reuters, Bankscope, IMF and the World Bank. Using the random effects ordered probit and logit methodologies to estimate both sovereign (country) and bank level credit ratings models for the MENA countries, the evidence shows that real GDP growth, capital requirements, restrictions on banking activities and control of corruption all contribute negatively to the sovereign ratings. Furthermore, internal management and organisational requirements is considered as an additional regulatory factor not studied in previous research. The statistically significant and inverse relationship of the latter is considered an important and interesting outcome of MENA countries’ sovereign ratings. On the other hand, GDP per capita, investment (as a percentage of GDP), political stability, government effectiveness and the rule of law all reveal significant and positive impact on the sovereign credit ratings. In general, this research finds that improved macroeconomic conditions are correlated with higher ratings, while greater reserve regulations are correlated with lower ratings. The study also does find the significance of governance and regulatory variables plays a key role into the final credit rating. With regard to the impact on banks’ ratings, the results show that higher return on average assets and equity, larger bank size, more restrictions on bank activities, as well as higher official disciplinary power and higher standards of internal management, will yield higher credit ratings. Apart from having direct and positive impact on banks credit ratings, these variables are important for examining the risk-sharing incentives in MENA countries’ banks. In contrast, the estimation results indicate that net interest margin, net loans to deposits, liquid assets to deposits, capital requirements, deposit insurance scheme, liquidity requirements, unemployment rate and government effectiveness have an inverse and negative impact on banks ratings. In general, this study also finds various financial, macroeconomic, and regulatory effects on banks’ credit ratings. To a much lesser extent than government ratings, various macroeconomic variables also helped predict banks’ ratings, including real GDP growth and the unemployment rate. The thesis concludes by arguing that the combined use of financial and non-financial factors for estimating credit ratings models supports the relevant hypotheses examined and adds value to all stakeholders in improving and obtaining a better quality of credit ratings. This study also demonstrates that a diversity of bank-level and country-level factors influence the MENA sovereign and bank ratings differently, implying that policy makers, regulators alongside rating agencies should distinguish the different environmental factors between nations before any judgment and issuance can be model of the ratings. To conclude, there is no study which exclusively investigates credit rating models for the MENA region exploiting the richness of the data and methodology employed, and the current research aims to fill this gap.

Compensation structures with relatively high levels of contingent pay encouraged managers to engage in excessive risk-taking behavior at financial institutions, which contributed to the global financial crisis of 2008. The purpose of this study, guided by the theory of the firm, was to explore compensation strategies that some executives in Uganda used to support effective risk-management practices. This multiple case study was an in-depth inquiry into compensation strategies that encouraged prudent risk-taking behavior. The target population comprised 5 risk-management executives from 5 separate commercial banks who had successfully implemented compensation strategies that supported risk management practices. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. Data were analyzed using Yin’s approach and involved data coding, sorting, filtering, identifying relationships, confirming and linking emerging themes to the research question. Methodological triangulation and member checking were applied to ensure the credibility, validity, accuracy, and transferability of the results. Four themes emerged from data analysis: compensation challenges, financial and nonfinancial compensation, the effectiveness of compensation, and effective implementation of compensation strategies. The findings from the study may contribute to positive social change by driving the adoption of compensation strategies that motivate leaders to focus on the long-term objectives of the firm, including investing in socially responsive projects that improve the welfare of the communities in which the banks operate.

Chinese commercial banks are the leading players directly participating in China's market economy activities. Macroeconomic stability is an essential prerequisite for the development of the banking industry. However, with the development of economic globalization, more and more influencing factors determine the changes in the business cycles, thus making commercial banks face higher risks in their operations. What's more, policy factors may make the operation of China's commercial banks inconsistent with changes in the business cycles. At present, China's domestic research literature that extends to the operation of commercial banks from the perspective of economic cycles lacks a systematic theoretical analysis. The purpose of the study was to examine the correlation between the profitability of commercial banks and business cycles in China by using the panel data analysis method. This paper selected return on assets, loan growth rate, non-performing loan ratio and net interest spread of 34 listed commercial banks from 2001 to 2018 as related variables and selected GDP growth rate, unemployment rate, and industry value added growth rate of China from 2001 to 2018 as the indicators of business cycles. The findings show that business cycles have a negative effect on the profitability of commercial banks in China. Based on the result of the empirical conclusions and the interest-oriented profit model of Chinese commercial banks, the paper also analyzes the impact of the business cycles on commercial bank profitability from the perspective of loan and net interest spread. Commercial bank practitioners can use these findings to avoid risks in bank operations, while other researchers can use our findings to develop further research on the factors affecting the profitability of commercial banks.

This dissertation topic is on the market discipline of banking institutions during the most recent business cycle (i.e., the business cycle surrounding the Great Recession of 2007). Market discipline has been a focal point of banking regulation since the implementation of Basel II in June 2004. In an attempt to provide a comprehensive framework that provides international standards on bank supervision, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision designed a complementary three-pillar structure. These include: capital requirements, the supervisory review process, and market discipline. Recent research has shown that the success of capital requirement ultimately lies in how well it serves market discipline (Gordy and Howells, 2006). The FDIC defines market discipline as: The forces in a free market (without the influence of government regulation) which tend to control and limit the riskiness of a financial institution’s investment and lending activities. Such forces include the concern of depositors for the safety of their deposits and the concern of bank investors for the safety and soundness of their institutions. Source: FDIC Glossary of Definitions Thus, regulators must account for market discipline in their design of a new regulatory framework. In Chapter 1, I investigate how the yield spreads of debt issued by U.S. Systemically Important Banks (SIBs) in the secondary market are associated with their idiosyncratic risk factors, as well as bond features, and macroeconomic factors, over a complete business cycle across the pre-crisis (2003:Q1 to 2007:Q3), crisis (2007:Q4 to 2009:Q2), and post-crisis (2009:Q3 to 2014:Q3) periods. Both Global and Domestic SIBs (G-SIBs and D-SIBs) are considered. Economic theory suggests that as SIB risk-levels increase, bond-buyers demand a higher yield spread (lower price) on the debt security (Evanoff and Wall, 2000). However, explicit and implicit government safety nets before, during, and after the crisis complicate the market discipline mechanism and make a priori predictions of the yield changes in response to increases in risk inconclusive. This renders the issue an empirical exercise. By stratifying across the most recent business cycle, I am able to investigate two broad objectives. First, I study how bond-buyers react to increases in SIB risk across the recent business cycle. Second, I investigate the degree to which the proportion of the variance in yield spreads explained by macroeconomic factors changed across the phases of the cycle. Unusual volatility during and after the financial crisis in the macroeconomic realm, and the keen focus by regulators, investors, and other stakeholders on idiosyncratic risk makes it theoretically unclear which countervailing force is the primary driver of yield spreads in the secondary market. The data includes over 9.7 million bond trades across the 26 SIBs based in the U.S. I obtain several interesting results. First, bond-buyers do react to increases in bank risk factors (leverage, credit risk, inefficiency, lack of profitability, illiquidity, and interest rate risk) by charging higher yield spreads. Second, bond buyer response to risk is sensitive to the phase of the business cycle. Third, the proportion of variance in yield spreads driven by issuing-firm-specific and bond-specific risk factors (as opposed to macroeconomic factors) increased from 29% in the pre-crisis period to 48% and 77% during the crisis and post-crisis periods, respectively. This last finding indicates that market discipline greatly improved in the two latter phases of the business cycle, and while the literature on market discipline following the 2007-2009 crises is still scant, this result is consistent with some extant studies (Balasubramnian and Cyree, 2014). Despite unprecedented accommodative fiscal and monetary policies during and after the financial crisis, market discipline in the secondary bond market has strengthened considerably, providing evidence that regulatory intervention and market discipline can work in tandem. These results can advise regulators, investors, bank risk managers, and others, on how bond traders react to issuing-bank, bond, and macroeconomic factors. For example, regulators and policy makers should account for the effect of market discipline in formulation of their monetary and fiscal policies designed to achieve specific targets because, otherwise, they may miss the targets. In Chapter 2, I study the impact of bank risk taking and macroeconomic factors on the growth of interest-bearing deposits and interest rates paid on those deposits for U.S. commercial banks with less than $10 billion in total assets (known as commercial banking organizations or CBOs). The sample period for deposit growth covers the recent business cycle (2003:Q1 to 2014:Q4) and it is broken down into pre-crisis (2003:Q1 to 2007:Q3), crisis (2007:Q4 to 2009:Q2), and post-crisis (2009:Q3 to 2014:Q4) sub-periods in order to contrast the patterns of effects over these phases of the business cycle. Deposit pricing equations are estimated over the post-crisis period only due to data limitations. Separate deposit growth rate equations are estimated across four deposit types (transaction, savings, large, and small time deposits), while separate deposit pricing equations are estimated across 30 deposit types (including various terms and balances for certificates of deposits as well as personal and business money market accounts and interest checking accounts, among others). Bank heterogeneity is accounted for via fixed effects estimation. I obtain several interesting results. First, there is a relationship between bank risk taking and subsequent deposit withdrawals over the three sub-sample periods, indicating that depositors do respond to bank riskiness under the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis environments (market discipline). Second, there is also market discipline in deposit pricing as evidenced by the statistically significant and consistent relationship between bank risk taking and deposit pricing across all 30 different product types I study. Third, when deposits are disaggregated into insured and uninsured components, I find that the uninsured depositors react to changes in bank credit risk via deposit withdrawals (during the pre-crisis period) and pricing (during the post-crisis period) to a greater extent than do the fully insured depositors, supporting the presence of moral hazard. Fourth, since the pre-crisis period, macroeconomic factors have become even a greater force in driving the changes in deposit growth because of market intervention and implicit and explicit government guarantees. As macroeconomic factors drive more of the variation in deposit growth, mechanisms to keep CBO risk in check depend less on the depositors and banks and more on macroeconomic policy. In Chapter 3, I investigate the impact of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) of 2010 on accounting fees for commercial banks with less than $10 billion in total assets (known as commercial banking organizations or CBOs), while controlling for their litigation risk via legal fees spent on outside counsel. Using panel data from 2008 through 2014 for U.S. CBOs, I find that litigation risk is the primary driver of accounting fees for “large” CBOs with $1 billion - $10 billion in total assets. This finding is contrary to previous studies, which attribute the majority of explained variance in those fees to firm size alone. To my knowledge, these results are the first to explicitly confirm the litigation risk-audit fee hypothesis (Seetharaman et al., 2002) for the banking industry. In terms of magnitude, I find that for every one percent increase in legal fees, accounting fees will increase from two to nine basis points, depending on CBO size. Controlling for bank-specific risk and the general business cycle, our results show that Dodd-Frank has the greatest impact on accounting fees for small CBOs (<$500 million in total assets), which experience an increase in these expenses of 73% due to the drafting of the Act, and an increase of 105% due to the subsequent passage (compared to an increase of 56% and 86% in accounting fees for the large CBO cohort during the drafting and subsequent passage of Dodd-Frank, respectively). I also find that a decrease in bank leverage (for CBOs of all sizes) and an increase in real estate loans to total loans (for large CBOs) are indicative of higher accounting fees. / Economics