Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Brian C. Briggeman / As the recent financial crisis brought to light, the ability of commercial banks to quantify and better manage risk in their loan portfolios is paramount to their continued success and viability. Assessing, managing, and retaining capital is now a larger issue than ever given this event as well as the advent of the Basel III Accord. Pinnacle Bancorp is a community banking organization headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska with roughly $8.6 billion in assets. The company is also one of the largest agricultural lenders in the country and the largest agricultural lender among traditional community banks. Given the ominous outlook heading into 2016 for agricultural producers from lower projected net incomes and increased borrowing costs following Federal Reserve action on the Fed Funds Rate, many banks worry about the increased likelihood of default for agricultural producers. The objective of this thesis is to determine the adequacy of Pinnacle Bank’s equity capital relative to the agricultural loan portfolio. This process begins by employing binary logit regression in an effort to determine the probability of default for the bank’s agricultural loan portfolio. With default likelihood quantified, efforts are then made to determine the bank’s credit value-at-risk at various solvency levels. These figures are then compared to current capital levels in order to determine the adequacy of bank capital as measured by five key regulatory ratios ultimately imposed by Basel III. Finally, recommendations are made to management as to the adequacy of bank capital relative to the agricultural loan portfolio and any future efforts that need to be made in order to determine and ensure the adequacy of bank capital for the entire loan portfolio.

This thesis attempts to analyze the market response of stock prices of major U.S. banks to the February, 1987 Brazilian loan default announcement. The study's general hypothesis is that the market revalued stock prices according to each bank's amount of Brazilian loan exposure. The first chapter examines the significance of the default announcement. A survey of related literature is presented in the second chapter. Chapter III specifies the methodological techniques involved in analysis of the data. Chapter IV reports the findings of the study. Conclusions about the results are drawn in Chapter V. The results indicate the market is efficient. They also suggest that individual exposure was the major determinant of bank stock price decline.

Poor loan repayment causes the decline and failure of some microfinance institutions. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that microfinance (MFI) leaders use to reduce loan default in the base of the pyramid market. The study population included 6 MFI leaders, 12 borrower community-based groups, and 4 staff members of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA Rwanda) who reduced MFI loan default in Rwanda. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 3 MFI leaders, 3 ADRA Rwanda staff members, and 3 members of borrower groups. Data were also collected through focus groups with 3 borrower community-based groups comprising 6 to 8 members. Additional data were collected through the analysis of MFI and ADRA Rwanda organizational documents. The Varian group lending model was the conceptual framework for the study. Data analysis involved methodological triangulation and the Gadamerian hermeneutics framework of interpretation. Four major themes emerged: intrapreneurship and environmental business opportunities, favorable loan repayment conditions, strategies for choosing borrower groups, and loan use monitoring. A sustainable microfinance institution can produce social change by providing microfinance loans that clients can use to start and grow microenterprises that can become the source of income for improving the lives of clients and their family members. Findings may also be used to create economic growth through the participation of more people in economic activities in the base of the pyramid market.