chapter 24_risk management in financial institutions

1. Part Seven The Managementof Financial Institutions

Managing financial institutions has never been an easy task.But, uncertainty in the economic environment has increased, making the job of the financial institution manager that much harder.

In this chapter, we examine how financial institutions manage credit risk, default risk, etc.We explore the tools available to managers to measure these risks and strategies to reduce them.Topics include:

Managing Credit Risk

Managing Interest-Rate Risk

A major part of the business of financial institutions is making loans, and the major risk with loans is that the borrow willnot repay.

Credit riskis the risk that a borrowerwill not repay a loan according to the terms of the loan, either defaulting entirely or making late payments of interestor principal.

Once again, the concepts ofadverse selectionandmoral hazardwill provide our framework to understand the principles financial managers must follow to minimize credit risk, yet make successful loans.

Adverse selection is a problem in the market for loans because those with the highest credit risk have the biggest incentives to borrow from others.

Moral hazard plays as role as well.Once a borrower has a loan, she has an incentive to engage in risky projects to produce the highest payoffs, especially if the project is financed mostly with debt.

Solving Asymmetric Information Problems: financial managers have a number oftools available to assist in reducing or eliminating the asymmetric information problem:

Screening and Monitoring: collecting reliable information about prospective borrowers.This has also lead some institutions to specialize in regions or industries, gaining expertise in evaluating particular firms or individuals.

Screening and Monitoring: also involves requiring certain actions, or prohibiting others, and then periodically verifying that the borrower is complying with the terms of the loan contact.

Specialization in Lendinghelps in screening.It is easier to collect data on local firms and firms in specific industries.It allows them to better predict problems by having better industry and location knowledge.

Monitoring and Enforcementalso helps.Financial institutions write protective covenants into loans contracts and actively manage them to ensure that borrowers are not taking risks at their expense.

Long-term Customer Relationships: past information contained in checking accounts, savings accounts, and previous loans provides valuable information to more easily determine credit worthiness.

Loan Commitments: arrangements where the bank agrees to provide a loan up to a fixed amount, whenever the firm requests the loan.

Collateral: a pledge of property or other assets that must be surrendered if the terms of the loan are not met ( the loans are calledsecured loans ).

Compensating Balances: reserves that a borrower must maintain in an account that act as collateral should the borrower default.

Credit Rationing: (1) lenders will refuse to lend to some borrowers, regardless of how much interest they are willing to pay, or (2) lenders will only finance part of a project, requiring that the remaining part come from equity financing.

Financial institutions, banks in particular, specialize in earning a higher rate of return on their assets relative to the interest paid on their liabilities.

As interest rate volatility increased in the last 20 years, interest-rate risk exposure has become a concern for financial institutions.

To see how financial institutions can measure and manage interest-rate risk exposure, we will examine the balance sheet for First National Bank (next slide).

We will develop two tools, (1) Income Gap Analysis and (2) Duration Gap Analysis, to assist the financial manager in this effort.

Income Gap Analysis: measures the sensitivity of a banks current year net income to changes in interest rate.

Requires determining which assets and liabilities will have their interest rate change as market interest rates change.Lets see how that works for First National Bank.

Assets

assets with maturity less than one year

variable-rate mortgages

short-term commercial loans

portion of fixed-rate mortgages (say 20%)

Liabilities

money market deposits

variable-rate CDs

short-term CDs

federal funds

short-term borrowings

portion of checkable deposits (10%)

portion of savings (20%)

Rate-Sensitive Assets= $5m + $ 10m + $15m +20%$20m

RSA =$32m

Rate-Sensitive Liabs= $5m + $25m + $5m+ $10m+ 10%$15m

+ 20%$15m

RSL =$49.5m

if i 5%

Asset Income= +5% $32.0m =+$ 1.6m

Liability Costs = +5% $49.5m =+$ 2.5m

Income =$1.6m $ 2.5 = $0.9m

IfRSL >RSA ,i results in:NIM ,Income

GAP =RSA RSL

= $32.0m$49.5m= $17.5m

Income =GAP i

= $17.5m5%= $0.9m

This is essentially a short-term focus on interest-rate risk exposure.A longer-term focus usesduration gap analysis .

Owners and managers do care about the impact of interest rate exposure on current net income.They are also interested in the impact of interest rate changes on the market value of balance sheet items and the impact on net worth.

The concept of duration, which first appeared in chapter 3, plays a role here.

Duration Gap Analysis: measures the sensitivity of a banks current year net income to changes in interest rate.

Requires determining the duration for assets and liabilities, items whose market value will change as interest rates change.Lets see how this looks for FirstNational Bank.

The basic equation for determining the change in market value for assets or liabilities is:

% Change in Value = DUR x [ i/ (1 +i )]

Change in Value = DUR x [ i/ (1 +i )] x Original Value

Consider a change in rates from 10% to 15%.Using the value from Table 1, we see:

Assets:

Asset Value = 2.7.05/(1 + .10)$100m

= $12.3m

Liabilities:

Liability Value= 1.03.05/(1 + .10)$95m

= $4.5m

Net Worth:

NW = Assets Liabilities

NW = $12.3m( $4.5m) = $7.8m

For a rate change from 10% to 15%, the net worth of First National Bank will fall, changing by $7.8m.

Recall from the balance sheet that First National Bank has Bank capital totaling $5m.Following such a dramatic change in rate, the capital would fall to $2.8m.

For First National Bank, with a rate change from 10% to 15%, these equations are:

DUR gap =DUR a [ L / A DUR l ]

% NW = DUR gap i /(1 +i )

Another version of this analysis, which combines the steps into two equations, is:

DUR gap =DUR a [ L / A DUR l ]

= 2.7[(95/100)1.03]

= 1.72

% NW = DUR gap i /(1 +i )

= 1.72.05/(1 + .10)

= .078, or 7.8%

So far, we have focused on how to apply income gap analysis and duration gap analysis in a banking environment.

The same analysis can be applied to other financial institutions.For example, lets look at a simple finance company which makes consumer loans.The balance sheet and duration worksheet for Friendly Finance Co. follows.

Assets

securities with a maturity less than one year

consumer loans with a maturity less than one year

Liabilities

commercial paper

bank loans with a maturity less than one year

Ifi 5%

GAP=RSA RSL= $55 m$43 m = $12 million

Income=GAP i= $12 m5% = $0.6 million

Ifi 5%

DUR gap = DUR a [ L / A DUR l ]

= 1.16[90/1002.77]

= 1.33 years

% NW = DUR gapX i/(1 +i)

= ( 1.33).05/(1 + .10)

= .061, or 6.1%

Problems with GAP Analysis

Assumes slope of yield curve unchangedand flat

Manager estimates % of fixed rate assets and liabilities that are rate sensitive

Strategies for Managing Interest-Rate Risk

In example above, shorten duration of bank assets or lengthen duration of bank liabilities

To completely immunize net worth from interest-rate risk, setDUR gap= 0

ReduceDUR a= 0.98 DUR gap= 0.98[(95/100)1.03] = 0

RaiseDUR l= 2.80 DUR gap= 2.7[(95/100)2.80] = 0

Managing Credit Risk: basic techniques for managing relationships and rationing credit were reviewed.

Managing Interest-Rate Risk: the essential techniques of measuring interest-rate risk for both income and capital affectswere presented.

chapter 24_risk management in financial institutions

Economy & Finance