Bank opacity and risk-taking: Evidence from analysts’ forecasts

Date

2017-11-01

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

1572-3089

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Type

Article

Peer reviewed

Yes

Abstract

We depart from existing literature by invoking analysts’ forecasts to measure banking system opacity and then investigate the impact of such opacity on bank risk-taking, using a large panel of US bank holding companies, over the 1995–2013 period. We uncover three new results. Firstly, we find that opacity increases insolvency risks among banks. Secondly, we establish that the relationship between opacity and bank risk-taking is accentuated by the degree of banking market competition. Thirdly, we show that the bank business model moderates the risk-taking incentives of opaque banks, albeit only marginally. Overall, these findings suggest that the analysts forecast measure of bank opacity is useful for understanding risk-taking by publicly-traded banks, with important implications for bank stability.

Description

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

Keywords

Bank opacity, Analysts’ forecasts, Bank stability, Banking market competition, Bank business models

Citation

Fosu, S., Ntim, C.G., Coffie, W. and Murinde, V. (2017) Bank opacity and risk-taking: Evidence from analysts’ forecasts. Journal of Financial Stability, 33, pp.81-95.

Rights

Research Institute