Banking and the Bank Balance Sheet Flashcards
Principal banking actives and what makes them special
- borrow money from customers
- lend money to customers
they facilitate flow of funds through the economy but aren’t just intermediaries, they are agents providing a venue for borrowers and lenders
- Act as principal for their own account
Have promoted economic mobility and pushed the global economy to greater heights
Meltdown in banking sector has catastrophic effects
Bank balance sheet and the golden rule
the statement of what a financial institution of company owes at a given point in time
Golden rule: total assets = total liabilities
assets are the uses of funds and interest payments on them
liabilities are the sources of funds that the bank uses
difference between bank and company balance sheets
a bank balance sheet is applicable only on the banks which are prepared to reflect the tradeoff between the profit of the bank and its risk
a company balance sheet is applicable on all types of companies which are prepared to reflect the financial status of the business
Assets and components
- Financial assets
- Liquidity assets
- Reserves (includes vault cash): required reserves and excess reserves
- Deposits at other banks
- securities
- customer assets (loans)
- Real estate and other commercial assets
- Mortgages and other retail assets - Physical assets
- Branches, call centres, buildings, technology etc
- Banks own few physical assets in relation to their total assets
Liabilities and components
- Wholesale funding
- Customer deposits
- commercial deposits - including non-transaction deposits
- Retails deposits - including non-transaction
- customer deposits to calculate a banks loan to deposit ratio base
- Bank capital
- Equity = assets - liabilities
sits on the liability side as it is owed to shareholders
- cushion against a drop in the value of assets which could force the bank into insolvency
loan to deposit ratio base
if LDR>100%, bank has loan book greater than deposit base
Banks with high LDR are more reliant on wholesale borrowing
Wholesale funding refers to the use of deposits and other liabilities from institutions such as banks, pension funds, money market mutual funds and other financial intermediaries. When a bank relies on short-term wholesale funds to support long-term illiquid assets, it becomes vulnerable to runs by wholesale creditors.
Bank equity and Net Interest Margin
NIM is the difference between the interest rate a bank pays on its liabilities and the interest rate it generates from its financial assets
- is why shareholders put themselves in a position where they are first in line to absorb the losses of a banks bad debt
If bank charges 5% on customer assets and pays 3% on customer deposits - NIM is 2%
Value of this NIM on 500bn balance sheet would therefore by 10 billion
if running this bank has costs of 5bn, shareholders would then get dividends of 5bn
Basic banking
basic operation of a bank is asset transformation
a T-account is a simplified balance sheet with lines in the form of a T
it lists only the changes that occur in balance sheet items starting from initial balance sheet position
Opening a current account and using cash deposit
increases on asset (cash) side and on liability side (checkable deposits interest)
leads to an increase in banks reserves equal to the increase in checkable deposits
when a bank loses a deposit, it loses an equal amount of reserves and vice versa
Asset transformation
selling liabilities with one set of characteristics and using the proceeds to buy assets with a different set of characteristics
The bank borrows short and lends long: fundamental activities
Primary concerns of a bank manager
- Liquidity management
- asset management
- liability management
- capital adequacy management
Liquidity management and the role of reserves
bank has required reserves of 10% and suffers deposit outflow of 10m
- If a bank has ample reserves, a deposit outflow does not require changes in other parts of balance sheet
Shortfall
reserves are a legal requirement and the shortfall must be eliminated
excess reserves are insurance against the costs associated with deposit outflows
A shortfall is an amount by which a financial obligation or liability exceeds the required amount of cash that is available.
A funding shortfall is a lack of money to meet projected needs. Such shortages are a particular concerns for governments and non-governmental organizations that provide services to members of the public.
Ways of eliminating shortfall
1.Borrowing
- cost incurred is the interest rate paid on borrowed funds
- Security sale
- the costs of selling securities is the brokerage and transaction costs
- Central bank
- Borrowing from the CB also incurs interest payments
This interest rate in the US is called the discount rate
- reduce loans
- reducing loans is the most costly way of acquiring reserves
- calling in loans antagonises customers
- other banks may only agree to purchase loans at a substantial discount
Asset management goals
- seek the highest possible returns on loans and securities
- reduce risk
- have adequate liquidity
Asset management tools
- Find borrowers who will pay high interest rates and have low possibility of defaulting
- purchase securities with high returns and low risk
- lower risk by diversifying
- balance need for liquidity against increased returns from less liquid assets
Liability management
the decision made by a bank in order to maintain liquid assets to meet the banks obligations to depositors
phenomenon due to rise of money centre banks in 1960s
checkable deposits have decreased in importance as source of bank funds
Capital Adequacy management
Banks hold capital for 3 reasons
- Helps prevent bank failure
- Amount of capital affects return for the owners (equity holders) of the banks
- Regulatory requirement
How does bank capital help prevent failure or insolvency?
e.g during GFC if 5m of housing loans are written off
bank capital allows the reduction of the possibility of becoming insolvent
Insolvency could lead to a bank run
Return on assets (ROA)
net profit after taxes per pound of assets
= net profit after taxes/assets
Return on Equity (ROE)
net profit after taxes per pound of equity (bank) capital
= net profit after taxes/equity capital
Equity Multiplier (EM)
the amount of assets per pound of equity capital
= assets/equity capital
ROE = ROA x EM