Bank Risk Capital and Its Effectiveness in Selected Euro Area Banking Sectors

Risk capital or capital at risk (CaR) refers to the amount of capital set aside and maintained by banks to cover different types of risk. For banks, it is used as a buffer against claims or expenses in the event that ordinary capital is not enough to cover them. Thereby, risk capital can also be recognized as risk-bearing capital or surplus funds. Risk capital may generate very high costs, but on the other hand it protects against insolvency. That’s why a bank needs to find the ‘Gold mean’—the optimal value of risk capital that will not lower its efficiency, but still ensure financial security. The main objective of the study is identification of interdependencies between bank risk capital and effectiveness of the aggregated Eurozone banking sector and selected national banking sectors of the euro area. The paper tries to answer the research question whether the risk capital supports or lowers banks’ operational effectiveness. The adopted research hypothesis stated that there is a positive correlation between profitability and size of bank risk capital. To verify the hypothesis regression models were used. The results indicate that the size and structure of bank capital impact on the credit institutions’ effectiveness in the analyzed banking sectors, however with different intensity. Thereby, the article fulfils a research gap in the field of research studies that take into account how capital at risk and specific capital adequacy regulations may impact on a bank’s efficiency.

Stranded human and produced capital in a net-zero transition

The pace of the net-zero transition required to meet the Paris Agreement objectives puts the value of existing carbon-dependent capital at risk of premature depreciation.1–3 A policy debate has emerged over whether such substantial financial loss affects market valuation and stability.4–6 Here, we quantify the current value of existing global human and produced capital, sector by sector, and compare the rate at which it naturally depreciates with that at which it would be required to depreciate to achieve climate targets. Comparison allows us to determine the human and produced capital value at risk across the economy by sector. We find that stopping the production of carbon intensive capital and the training of carbon intensive occupations in 2020 allows a better than 50 percent chance to achieve a 2°C target. However, achieving net-zero in 2050 implies capital value at risk approaching 50 T$, three quarters of which is human capital. We conclude that intervention in both the financial and educational systems may be warranted in order to reduce these risks, where training a workforce for occupations that may soon cease to exist could be avoided.

Economic Risk Assessment of Climate Change at the Urban Scale: The Case of Cape Town, South Africa

Estimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remain highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in developing cities to inform spatially sensitive municipal climate response strategies. Building on a capital-based framework (CBF), spatially disaggregated baseline and future scenario scores for economic wealth and its exposure to climate change are developed for six different classes of capital and across 77 major suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa. Capital-at-risk was calculated by combining relative exposure and capital scores across different scenarios and with population impacted plotted against the major suburbs and the city’s 8 main planning districts. The economic risk assessment presented here provides a generic approach to assist investment planning and the implementation of adaptation options through an enhanced understanding of relative levels of capital endowment vis-à-vis relative levels of exposure to climate-related hazards over time. An informed climate response strategy in spatially heterogeneous cities need to include spatially sensitive estimates on capital-at-risk and populations disproportionally impacted by climate exposure over time. The economic risk assessment approach presented here helps in advancing to such a goal.

XVA metrics for CCP optimization

Based on an XVA analysis of centrally cleared derivative portfolios, we consider two capital and funding issues pertaining to the efficiency of the design of central counterparties (CCPs). First, we consider an organization of a clearing framework, whereby a CCP would also play the role of a centralized XVA calculator and management center. The default fund contributions would become pure capital at risk of the clearing members, remunerated as such at some hurdle rate, i.e. return-on-equity. Moreover, we challenge the current default fund Cover 2 EMIR sizing rule with a broader risk based approach, relying on a suitable notion of economic capital of a CCP. Second, we compare the margin valuation adjustments (MVAs) resulting from two different initial margin raising strategies. The first one is unsecured borrowing by the clearing member. As an alternative, the clearing member delegates the posting of its initial margin to a so-called specialist lender, which, in case of default of the clearing member, receives back from the CCP the portion of IM unused to cover losses. The alternative strategy results in a significant MVA compression. A numerical case study shows that the volatility swings of the IM funding expenses can even be the main contributor to an economic capital based default fund of a CCP. This is an illustration of the transfer of counterparty risk into liquidity risk triggered by extensive collateralization.

SECTORAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BANK RISK CAPITAL IN THE VISEGRAD GROUP COUNTRIES

Bank risk capital (capital at risk) is identified with the value of banks’ own funds maintaining to absorb potential losses and protect against insolvency. It is calculated for the capital adequacy ratios, recommended by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. On other words, it is a kind of banks’ capital that financing securing the negative effects of risk occurring. A comparative analysis of effectiveness of bank risk capital in the Visegrad Group countries, constituting the main objective of the study, results from the needs indicated in the already conducted preliminary research. In the article, statistical and econometric methods were used, based on linear regression models. The conducted research were aimed to verify the research hypothesis stating that in the analyzed banking sectors of the Visegrad Group countries there is a positive correlation between banks' profitability and a level of their bank risk capital. The study indicated that net profit of the analyzed banking sectors increases with a growth of total own funds, while profitability is diversified in individual countries. Declining operational efficiency results from the growing cost of obtaining and maintaining risk capital.

SECTORAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BANK RISK CAPITAL IN THE VISEGRAD GROUP COUNTRIES

Bank risk capital (capital at risk) is identified with the value of banks’ own funds maintaining to absorb potential losses and protect against insolvency. It is calculated for the capital adequacy ratios, recommended by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. On other words, it is a kind of banks’ capital that financing securing the negative effects of risk occurring. A comparative analysis of effectiveness of bank risk capital in the Visegrad Group countries, constituting the main objective of the study, results from the needs indicated in the already conducted preliminary research. In the article, statistical and econometric methods were used, based on linear regression models. The conducted research were aimed to verify the research hypothesis stating that in the analyzed banking sectors of the Visegrad Group countries there is a positive correlation between banks' profitability and a level of their bank risk capital. The study indicated that net profit of the analyzed banking sectors increases with a growth of total own funds, while profitability is diversified in individual countries. Declining operational efficiency results from the growing cost of obtaining and maintaining risk capital.