-
-
-
The Governance & Culture Reform hub is designed to foster discussion about corporate governance and the reform of culture and behavior in the financial services industry.
Need to file a report with the New York Fed? Here are all of the forms, instructions and other information related to regulatory and statistical reporting in one spot.
The New York Fed works to protect consumers as well as provides information and resources on how to avoid and report specific scams.
-
-
-
The New York Fed provides a wide range of payment services for financial institutions and the U.S. government.
The New York Fed offers the Central Banking Seminar and several specialized courses for central bankers and financial supervisors.
The New York Fed has been working with tri-party repo market participants to make changes to improve the resiliency of the market to financial stress.
-
-
-
We are connecting emerging solutions with funding in three areas—health, household financial stability, and climate—to improve life for underserved communities. Learn more by reading our strategy.
The Economic Inequality & Equitable Growth hub is a collection of research, analysis and convenings to help better understand economic inequality.
The Governance & Culture Reform hub is designed to foster discussion about corporate governance and the reform of culture and behavior in the financial services industry.
-
June 2018 Revised December 2019
JEL classification: G20, G21, G28
Authors: Dong Beom Choi, Michael R. Holcomb, and Donald P. Morgan
Banks are regulated more than most firms, making them good subjects to study regulatory arbitrage (avoidance). Their latest arbitrage opportunity may be the new leverage rule covering the largest U.S. banks; leverage rules require equal capital against assets with unequal risks, so banks can effectively relax the leverage constraint by increasing asset risk. Consistent with that conjecture, we find that banks covered by the new rule shifted to riskier, higher yielding securities relative to control banks. The shift began almost precisely when the rule was finalized in 2014, well before it took effect in 2018. Security-level analysis suggests banks actively added riskier securities, rather than merely shedding safer ones. Despite the risk-shifting, overall bank risk did not increase, evidently because the banks most constrained by the new leverage rule significantly increased leverage capital ratios.
I am employed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The views expressed in the article under submission reflect my views and the views of my co-authors, but do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Federal Reserve Board, or the Federal Reserve System.
I have not received outside financial support for the research in this article.
I have not received any fees or payments from any institutions that might be relevant to the content of the research under submission.
No close relative has received funding or financial support, or is an officer, director, or board member of any relevant organization.
The article was vetted prior to circulation outside the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Michael R. Holcomb
The author declares that he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
Donald P. Morgan
I, Donald P. Morgan, have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
