A parsimonious and predictive model of the recent bank failures.
Trussel, John ; Johnson, Larry
INTRODUCTION
The collapse of the housing and equity markets and the ensuing
recession has led to the largest number of bank failures since the
Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since the
start of the financial crisis in 2008 through 2009, there have been 167
bank failures in the United States (FDIC Bank Failures, 2010). The
purpose of this analysis is to examine the financial condition of banks
during this recent financial crisis and determine whether there are key
financial indicators that could signal potential failure. The
seriousness of the financial crisis is described by the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the 2008 Quarterly Report.
FDIC-insured institutions reported a net loss of $32.1 billion in
the fourth quarter of 2008, a decline of $32.7 billion from the $575
million that the industry earned in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the
first quarterly loss since 1990. Rising loan-loss provisions, large
write-downs of goodwill and other assets, and sizable losses in trading
accounts all contributed to the industry's net loss. More than
two-thirds of all insured institutions were profitable in the fourth
quarter, but their earnings were outweighed by large losses at a number
of big banks (p. 1).
The increase in bank failures that began in 2008 was largely
precipitated by the collapse of the U.S. housing market. Falling home
prices led to declines in securities tied to home loans forcing banks to
take write-downs on their balance sheets. Falling home prices combined
with losses in the stock and bond markets resulted in historic declines
in household wealth. The U.S. officially entered into recession in
December 2007.
The financial crisis that began in early 2008 worsened the
recession, making this not only one of the longest but also one of the
most severe U.S. recessions since World War II. Real gross domestic
product (GDP) declined at an annualized rate of 5.4% in the fourth
quarter of 2008, 6.4% in the first quarter of 2009, and 0.7% quarter of
2009. Real GNP returned to positive growth of 2.2% on an annualized
basis for the third quarter of 2009 and 5.7% in the fourth quarter of
2009. (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2010). Because of the recession,
bank failures continued with 130 failed banks in 2009 (FDIC Bank
Failures, 2010).
The current banking crisis is broad based and linked closely to
defaults on residential real estate and small business loans. Smaller
banks that were linked to construction, real estate development, and
small businesses loans were most at risk. This current bank crisis is
different from the bank crisis of the late 1980s and 1990s, which was
largely linked to defaults in the commercial real estate, agricultural,
and petroleum industries, and particularly in oil and agricultural
producing regions.
This paper investigates the financial indicators associated with
recent bank failures. The number of predictor variables is limited to
six for reasons of parsimony. Previous literature has addressed the
topic of predicting bank failure; however, our model differs from
previous studies in four important ways. First, our model is
parsimonious, using only six financial indicators to predict bank
failure. Second, our model uses logistic regression to weight the six
financial indicators into a composite measure of failure. Third, we use
data from the recent bank failures to develop our model. Fourth, we
incorporate various costs of misclassifying banks as failed or not
failed. The regression model results in a prediction of the likelihood
of failure, which correctly classifies up to 98% of the sample as failed
or not.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 1
describes the extant literature on failure in banks. Section 2 discusses
the indicators associated with failure and the related hypotheses
testing. The results of testing the failure model are analyzed in
Section 3, and the Section 4 concludes the paper.
BANK FAILURE MODELS IN THE LITERATURE
The Uniform Financial Institutions Rating System
The Uniform Financial Institutions Rating System (UFIRS) was
adopted by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
(FFIEC) on November 13, 1979, with revisions made since then. Federal
supervisory agencies use this system to evaluate the soundness of
financial institutions and to identify those institutions requiring
special attention. Under the UFIRS, each financial institution is rated
based on six components: the adequacy of capital, the quality of assets,
the capability of management, the quality and level of earnings, the
adequacy of liquidity, and the sensitivity to market risk. This rating
approach is called the CAMELS system, which is an acronym for these six
components--Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management risk, Earnings
strength, Liquidity, and Sensitivity to market risk. In previous
iterations of the rating system there was no measure of market risk, and
the acronym was CAMEL.
Each of the CAMELS components is evaluated and assigned a score
from one-to-five with one being the best relative to the
institution's size, complexity, and risk profile. The scores from
each of the six categories are summed and the institution is placed into
one of five composite groups based on this total score. Institutions in
the bottom group will cause the highest level of supervisory concern.
Bank regulators evaluate the financial condition of banks using
on-site examinations and off-site statistical analysis. On-site exams
use the CAMELS system and result in a rating of one-to-five with one
being the highest rating and five the lowest rating for financial
condition. While on-site examinations are the most extensive reviews,
the rating can decline between on-site examinations. (Cole and Gunthner,
1998)
Existing Early Warning Systems
Besides the UFIRS, the FDIC also uses a bank's capital
adequacy as an early warning for further action. The FDIC has minimum
capital requirements, below which a bank must (with certain exceptions)
file a written capitalization plan with the FDIC regional director (FDIC
Bank Examinations, 2010, Section 325.3). The minimum ratio of tier one
(or core) capital to total capital is four percent (and in some cases
three percent). Tier one capital is common equity plus noncumulative
perpetual preferred stock plus minority interests in consolidated
subsidiaries less goodwill and other ineligible intangible assets. The
amount of eligible intangibles (including mortgage servicing rights)
included in core capital is limited in accordance with supervisory
capital regulations. If a bank's tier one capital falls below two
percent of total assets, then the FDIC considers the bank to operating
in an "unsafe or unsound condition" (FDIC Bank Examinations,
2010, Section 325.4). However, only one of the 167 banks that failed in
2008 and 2009 had tier one capital less than two-percent, and only two
had tier one capital less than four-percent at the end of 2007. Thus,
this system is not a good predictor of failure.
Numerous studies have focused on early warning systems as a
supplement to on-site bank examinations with the purpose of determining
troubled banks between bank examinations. Such systems typically utilize
indicators from the CAMELS system as inputs into a prediction model. For
example, Jagtiani, et al. (2003) evaluated early warning systems using a
simple logit analysis, a more complete stepwise logit analysis, and a
non-parametric trait recognition (TRA) model. They concluded that the
simple logit was better in predicting capital inadequate banks.
Kumar and Arora (1995) also used a logit model to predict bank
failures during 1991. They used a risk rating rather than the CAMELS
system as their predictors and compared both linear and quadratic
models. They concluded that both models give similar and satisfactory
results. Likewise, Gunsel (2007) used the CAMEL rating system and logit
analysis to measure the probability of bank failure for banks in North
Cyprus. He concluded that the CAMEL modeling approach is appropriate for
predicting bank failures in emerging economies.
Kolari, et.al. (2002) compared logit analysis as an early warning
system to a nonparametric trait recognition model for large bank
failures during the late 1980's and early 1990's. They found
that both approaches for an early warning system are appropriate but the
trait recognition model worked best for minimizing Type I
(misclassifying failures as not failures) and Type II errors
(misclassifying not failures as failures). Kasa and Spiegel (2008) also
used logit regression to compare bank failures using an "absolute
closure rule" (when asset-liability ratios fall below a threshold)
versus a "relative closure rule" (when asset-liability ratios
fall below an industry average) which implies forbearance during
economic downturns. They conclude that bank closures are based more on
relative performance than an absolute closure rule.
Thomson (1991), in his article on predicting bank failures in the
1980's, also used logit analysis to predict default using a
combination of accounting and economic variables as the explanatory
variables. His results indicate that solvency and liquidity are the most
important variables and showed hints of distress up to thirty months
before default. His final model included solvency, capital adequacy,
asset quality, management quality, earnings performance, and relative
liquidity variables.
Cole and Gunther (1998) in their comparison of on-and off-site
monitoring systems used a probit model as the early warning system. They
suggested the econometric model was useful for monitoring banks six
months past their on-site examination date. Other studies of early
warning systems using advanced analytical techniques include Swicegood
and Clark (2001), who compared neural networks and discriminant analysis
to professional human judgment, and Salchenberger, et al. (1992), who
also used neural networks in an analysis of thrift failures. Both
concluded that neural networks could perform as good as or better than
other early warning systems for bank failure. Ozkan-Gunay and Ozhan
(2007) recommend neural networks for monitoring banks in emerging
economies. Curry, et al. (2007) take a different approach and analyze
bank failures based on equity market data and conclude that market data
could improve the early warning system based solely on accounting data.
Jesswein (2009) tests the so-called "Texas ratio"
(non-performing assets divided by the sum of tangible equity capital and
loan loss reserves). He finds that the ratio provides important
insights, but it is probably not a good tool for an overall analysis of
bank failure.
Various financial, accounting, and economic variables are used
across the different studies. For example, Jagtiani, et. al (2003)
incorporated forty-two explanatory variables in their analysis as
compared to Cole and Gunther (1998) who used only eight. A review of
different analytical techniques and variables used in the different
analysis was completed by Demirguc-Kunt (1989), who summarized
significant independent variables from seven previous studies. Table 1
includes a representative sample of variables used in previous studies
by CAMELS category. In this study, we utilize one variable per category,
similar to the ones used in these previous studies.
MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND FINANCIAL INDICATORS
Previous models of bank failure are deficient for several reasons.
Our model incorporates methods to compensate for the shortcomings of
previous studies.
First, the UFIRS/CAMELS system used by bank regulators and previous
researchers is problematic. Several items are considered and measured to
evaluate each category, making the system quite complex. Including too
many variables to proxy for each category could over-specify the model
and cause multicollinearity. For example, in the capital adequacy
category, evaluators consider these items at a minimum (FDIC, 2009):
* The level and quality of capital and the overall financial
condition of the institution.
* The ability of management to address emerging needs for
additional capital.
* The nature, trend, and volume of problem assets, and the adequacy
of allowances for loan and lease losses and other valuation reserves.
* Balance sheet composition, including the nature and amount of
intangible assets, market risk, concentration risk, and risks associated
with nontraditional activities.
* Risk exposure represented by off-balance sheet activities.
* The quality and strength of earnings, and the reasonableness of
dividends.
* Prospects and plans for growth, as well as past experience in
managing growth.
* Access to capital markets and other sources of capital, including
support provided by a parent holding company.
Our model is parsimonious, with one variable per CAMELS category,
chosen based on popularity in the literature.
Second, there is no conceptually sound system for weighting each of
these items to determine the score for each category and the composite
score. We use logistic regression analysis to develop our model of bank
failure. The multivariate model weights each of the variables using the
sample data and results in a composite likelihood of failure. Unlike the
composite score from the UFIRS system, our composite score will weight
each variable according to results of the regression analysis.
Third, the recent failures arise from differing reasons than
previous failures. The recent failures occurred during a unique economic
period. Banks tied to home mortgages were faced with unprecedented
foreclosures especially in areas that had experienced rapid increases in
home prices. Defaults on sub-prime loans and subsequent foreclosures
depressed home prices in many regions of the country. Defaults then
moved to prime borrowers as many owed more on their mortgages that the
homes were worth. Many community banks also became vulnerable due to
exposure from real estate and construction loans and commercial loans
linked to the residential sector. Thus, the relationship among the
predictor variables is likely different than previous periods.
Fourth, we take into account various costs of misclassification
errors. Previous studies do not take into account the likelihood that
costs of Type I errors (misclassifying failures as non-failures) are
higher that the costs of Type II errors (misclassifying non-failures as
failures)..
Indicators of Failure
We incorporate the same six categories from the UFRIS to develop
our failure model; however, we use one variable to proxy each category.
The variables were chosen based upon their usage in the literature on
bank failure to best reflect each category. Obviously, one variable
cannot capture the complexities of each category; however, our goal is
to have a parsimonious model that will result in a reliable model of
failure prediction.
Capital Adequacy (CAP). A financial institution is expected to
maintain capital corresponding with the risks to the institution. The
nature and extent of inherent risk will drive the levels of capital
needed by the institution to meet these risks. There are also regulatory
minimums that are required of financial institutions. We proxy capital
adequacy as the ratio of tier one capital to total assets and expect a
negative correlation with the likelihood of failure. Tier one (or core)
capital includes common equity, noncumulative perpetual preferred stock,
minority interests in consolidated subsidiaries and excludes goodwill
and other ineligible intangible assets. The amount of eligible
intangibles (such as mortgage servicing rights) is limited in accordance
with supervisory capital regulations.
Asset Quality (QUAL). Asset quality reflects "the quantity of
existing and potential credit risk associated with the loan and
investment portfolios, other real estate owned, and other assets, as
well as off-balance sheet transactions" (FDIC 2009). One of the
most risky assets is the institution's loan portfolio. We measure
asset quality as the ratio of total loans and leases to total assets and
anticipate a positive correlation with the likelihood of failure. Higher
amounts of loans and leases in the asset portfolio imply more risk of
failure.
Management Risk (MGT). This category represents a measure of
"the capability of the board of directors and management, in their
respective roles, to identify, measure, monitor, and control the risks
of an institution's activities and to ensure a financial
institution's safe, sound, and efficient operation in compliance
with applicable laws and regulations" (FDIC 2009). Management must
address all risks, maintain appropriate controls, and monitor the
information systems. We proxy management risk as the ratio of insider
loans to total loans and expect a positive correlation with the
likelihood of failure. Insider loans are a measure of potential
management fraud.
Earnings Strength (EARN). Financial institutions, as well as any
proprietary organization, need to be profitable in order to continue to
operate. We measure earnings strength as the return on assets, which is
the ratio of net income to total assets. We anticipate a negative
association with failure.
Liquidity Position (LIQ). Liquidity is the ability of an entity to
pay its short-term obligations in a timely manner. Also, financial
institutions must consider the funds necessary to meet the banking needs
of their communities. We proxy the liquidity position as the ratio of
cash plus securities to total deposits and expect a negative
relationship with failure.
Sensitivity to Market Risk (RISK). This component reflects the
degree to which changes in market conditions, such as interest rates,
foreign exchange rates, commodity prices, or equity prices, can
adversely affect earnings and capital. For many institutions, the
primary source of market risk arises from loans and deposits and their
sensitivity to changes in interest rates. We measure the sensitivity to
market risk as the ratio of loan loss reserves to total loans and
anticipate a positive correlation with the probability of failure. The
six indicators of bank failure are summarized in Table 2.
RESULTS OF TESTING THE FAILURE PREDICTION MODEL
This study focuses on a limited set of financial indicators and the
prediction of recent bank failures. Certain financial indicators are
hypothesized to be related to failure and are described in the previous
section. This section presents the empirical tests of the failure
prediction model.
Sample Selection and Descriptive Statistics
According to the FDIC, there have been 193 bank failures since
2000, of which 167 were in 2008 and 2009. Thus, we focus on the huge
number of failures in recent years. We define a failed bank as one that
fell under the receivership of the FDIC during 2008 or 2009. In order to
develop a predictive model, we obtained data from the FDIC for all banks
as of 2007. There are 8,548 banks on the FDIC database as of December
31, 2007. Of these, 86 do not have complete data to compute the
indicators from Table 1 and are not included in the sample. This leaves
8,462 banks in the sample, of which 165 (2%) failed in 2007 or 2008.
Summary statistics are included in Table 3. As predicted,
statistically speaking, failed banks have less tier one capital (as a
percent of total assets), less net income (as a percent of total
assets), and less cash and securities (as a percent of total deposits)
than banks that did not fail. Also as expected, failed banks have more
loans and leases (as a percent of total assets) and a higher allowance
for loan losses (as a percent of total loans) than their counterparts
that did not fail. However, we did not expect that failed banks have
fewer insider loans (as a percent of total loans).
The Multivariate Model
We use cross-sectional data from 2007 to test our model of failure.
Since the dependent variable is categorical, the significance of the
multivariate model is addressed using logistic regression analysis.
Carlson (2010) suggests using both logit analysis and survival analysis
in a similar situation of bank failures. We only use logit analysis, due
to the short time period of the study. Using this method, the underlying
latent dependent variable is the probability of failure for bank i,
which is related to the observed variable, [Status.sub.i], through the
relation:
[Status.sub.i] = 0 if the organization has not failed,
[Status.sub.i] = 1 if the organization has failed.
The model includes all of the independent variables from Table 2.
The predicted probability of the kth status for bank i,
P([Status.sub.ik]) is calculated as:
P([Status.sub.ik]) = 1/1 + [e.sup.-z] (1)
where
[MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
We use a random sample of approximately one-half of the banks to
develop the model (the estimation sample) and the other half to test the
model (the holdout sample). The results of the logistic regression model
are included in Table 4. Overall, the model is statistically significant
at less than the 0.01 level according to the chi-square statistic. Also,
all of the indicators, except LIQ, are significantly related to the
probability of failure (at less than the 0.05 level). LIQ is not
statistically significant in the multivariate model. All of the
variables have the predicted signs, except for MGT. As with the
univariate results, the multivariate results find that failed banks
actually have fewer insider loans that do banks that did not fail. A
review of literature shows Thomson (1991) finds a positive and
significant relationship between insider loans and bank failure but it
is not identified as a significant variable in the seven studies
summarized by Demirguc-Kunt (1989). Perhaps more insider loans in a bank
that did not fail reflect management's confidence in the bank to
continue operating.
The results of the regression analysis also allow one to address
the impact of a change in a financial indicator on the likelihood of
failure. In Table 5, Exp(B) is the odds ratio, which is the change in
the odds of the event (failure) occurring for a one-unit change in the
financial indicator. The last column in Table 3 represents the impact on
the predicted likelihood of failure due to a 0.01 increase in the value
of the financial indicator. The impact for the 0.01 increase is computed
as [Exp(b).sup.0010]--1. The financial indicators CAP, EARN and RISK
have the biggest influences on the likelihood of failure. An increase in
CAP (EARN) by 0.01 will decrease the likelihood by 0.290 (0.289). A
decrease in RISK of 0.01 will increase the predicted likelihood of
failure by 0.219. Based on the financial indicators in this model, banks
attempting to reduce the likelihood of failure will have the biggest
impact by increasing the amount of tier one capital (relative to total
assets), by increasing the return on assets or by decreasing loan loss
reserves (relative to total loans). Also, an increase in MGT (insider
loans as a percent of total loans) of 0.01 will decrease the risk of
failure by 0.194. Changes in QUAL or LIQ do not have nearly the impact
on the likelihood of failure.
Predicting Failure
We use the results of the logistic regression analysis to test the
predictive ability of the failure model. The observed logistic
regression equation (from Table 4) for bank i at time t is:
P(i,t) = 1/(1+[e.sup.-Zi])
where:
[MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
The predicted dependent variable, P(i,t) the probability of failure
for bank i, is computed using the actual financial indicators for each
bank in the estimation sample. The resulting probabilities are used to
classify banks as failed or not. Jones (1987) suggests adjusting the
cutoff probability for classifying as failed or not failed in two ways.
Following the suggestion of Jones, we first incorporate the prior
probability of failure and then include the expected cost of
misclassification.
Using logit, the proportion of failed banks in the sample must be
the same as the proportion in the population to account for the prior
probability of failure. If the proportion is not the same, then the
constant must be adjusted (Maddala 1991). This is more of a problem when
a paired sample method is used, which is not the case here. Since two
percent of the banks in the sample are failed, we assume that the prior
probability of failure is 0.02. We evaluated the sensitivity of the
model to other assumptions of the prior probability of failure by using
prior probabilities of 0.005, 0.01 and 0.03. These assumptions did not
alter the results (not shown) significantly. The tenor of the results is
similar; however, the cutoff probabilities for classification differ.
The ratios of the cost of type I errors (incorrectly classifying
failed banks as not failed--a false negative) to type II errors
(incorrectly classifying banks that are not failed as failed--a false
positive) also must be determined. The particular cost function is
difficult to ascertain and will depend on the user of the information.
For example, a creditor may want to minimize loan losses (and thus type
I errors); however, he or she will suffer an opportunity cost (type II
error) if credit is granted to another borrower at a lower rate. In most
cases, the cost of a type II error is likely to be much smaller than a
type I error. Thus, we incorporate several relative cost ratios (and
cutoff probabilities) into our analysis. Specifically, we include the
relative costs of type I to type II errors of 1:1, 10:1, 20:1, 30:1,
40:1, 60:1, and 100:1 (Beneish 1999; Trussel 2002).
The results of using the logit model to classify banks as failed or
not are included in Table 5, Panel A, for the estimation sample. The
cutoff probabilities presented are those that minimize the expected
costs of misclassification. Following Beneish (1999), the expected costs
of misclassification (ECM) are computed as:
ECM = P(FAIL)[P.sub.I][C.sub.I] + [1 -
P(FAIL)][P.sub.II][C.sub.II],
where P(FAIL) is the prior probability of failure, [P.sub.I] and
[P.sub.II] are the conditional probabilities of type I and type II
errors, respectively, and [C.sub.I] and [C.sub.II] are the costs of type
I and type II errors, respectively.
The validity of the model is tested on the holdout sample using the
same cutoff probabilities from the estimation sample. Table 5, Panel B,
includes the results for the holdout sample. The results indicate that
the model can identify failed banks with 46% (at a cost ratio of 100:1)
to 98% (at a cost ratio of 1:1) of the banks in the estimation sample
correctly classified. Although the overall classification results are
strong at the lower cost ratios, the type I error rates are very high. A
more balanced result is obtained at the middle cost ratios of 40:1 and
60:1. Similar results are obtained using the holdout sample.
To test the usefulness of the model, we compare these results to a
naive strategy. This strategy classifies all banks as failed (not
failed) when the ratio of relative costs is greater than (less than or
equal to) the prior probability of failure. This switch in strategy
between classifying all organizations as not failed to classifying all
of them as failed occurs at relative cost ratios of 50:1 [i.e.,
1/P(Fail) or 1 / 0.02]. If all banks are classified as failed (not
failed), then the naive strategy makes no type I (type II) errors. In
this case, [P.sub.I] ([P.sub.II]) is zero, and [P.sub.II] ([P.sub.I]) is
one. The expected cost of misclassification for the naive strategy of
classifying all banks as not failed (failed) reduces to 0.98 [C.sub.II]
(0.02 [C.sub.I]), since the prior probability of failure is 0.02.
We also report the relative costs or the ratio of the ECM for our
model to the ECM for the naive strategy in both panels of Table 5.
Relative costs below 1.0 indicate a cost-effective model. For both the
estimation and holdout samples, our model has a much lower ECM than the
naive strategy, except for the 1:1 cost ratio. In fact, the relative
costs are below 84% for all levels of type I to type II errors except
1:1. These results provide evidence to suggest that our failure model is
extremely cost-effective in relation to a naive strategy for almost all
the ranges of the costs of type I and type II errors. Applying the
prediction model
We use one of the banks from the sample to illustrate the model.
The model allows one to predict the status of the bank as failed or not
failed. From the results of the logistic regression, the probability of
the failure for bank i at time t, P(i,t) is:
P(i, t) = 1 / 1 + [e.sup.-zi] (1)
where
[MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Substituting the actual variables from the example entity (in
parentheses), we obtain:
[Z.sub.i] = -3.416 - 34.217(0.052) + 3.940(0.118) - 21.560(0) -
34.143(0.009) - 0.021(0.861) + 19.801(0.001) [Z.sub.i] = -5.036
Substituting the value into equation (1) obtains:
P = 1 / (1 + [e.sup.-5.036])
P = 0.006.
Table 5, Panel A, shows that the selected bank is predicted not to
be failed, since the actual probability of failure at the end of 2007
(0.006) is less than the cutoff at all levels of the ratio of type I to
type II errors. The entity's actual status is not failed as of the
end of 2009. Thus, the model correctly predicted the financial status of
this bank.
CONCLUSION
The collapse of the housing and equity markets and the ensuing
recession has led to the largest number of bank failures since the
Saving and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The recent
failures arise from a unique economic period compared with the previous
failures. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the financial
condition of banks during this recent financial crisis and determine
whether there are key financial indicators that could signal potential
failure. Our model uses logistic regression to weight the six financial
indicators into a composite measure of failure from recent bank
failures. In addition, the study incorporates various costs of
misclassifying banks as failed or not.
The regression model results in a prediction of the likelihood of
failure, which correctly classified up to 98% of the sample as failed or
not. The model also allowed for an analysis of the impact of a change in
a financial indicator on the likelihood of failure. As predicted,
statistically speaking, failed banks have less tier one capital (as a
percent of total assets), less net income (as a percent of total
assets), and less cash and securities (as a percent of total deposits)
than banks that did not fail. Also as expected, failed banks have more
loans and leases (as a percent of total assets) and a higher allowance
for loan losses (as a percent of total loans) than their counterparts
that did not fail. However, we did not expect that failed banks have
fewer insider loans (as a percent of total loans).
We also report the relative costs or the ratio of the ECM for our
model to the ECM for a naive strategy. For both the estimation and
holdout samples, our model has a much lower ECM than the naive strategy,
except for the 1:1 cost ratio. In fact, the relative costs are below 84%
for all levels of type I to type II errors except 1:1. These results
provide evidence to suggest that our failure model is extremely
cost-effective in relation to a naive strategy for almost all the ranges
of the costs of type I and type II errors.
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TABLE 1
REPRESENTATIVE INDICATORS OF FAILURE FROM SELECTED PREVIOUS STUDIES
VARIABLES BY CATEGORY REFERENCE
Capital Adequacy
Total Equity / Total Assets Swicegood and Clark (2001)
Earned Surplus / Total Assets Salchenberger, Cinar and Lash
(1992)
Regulator Recognized Capital / Gajewski (1988)
Total Assets
Asset Quality
(Loans + Leases) / Total Assets Thompson (1991)
Real Estate Loans / Total Loans Hirtle and Lopez (1999)
Non-accrual Loans / Total Loans Gajewski (1988)
Real Estate Owned / Total Assets Salchenberger, Cinar and Lash
(1992)
Management Competence
Insider Loans / Total Assets Thompson (1991)
Operating Expense / Gross Salchenberger, Cinar and Lash
Operating Income (1992)
Compensation / Gross Operating Pantalone and Platt (1987)
Income
Sensitive Deposits / Total Gajewski (1988)
Deposits
Earnings
Net Income / Total Assets Thompson (1991)
Non-interest Income / Total Swicegood and Clark (2001)
Assets
Net Interest Margin Salchenberger, Cinar and Lash
(1992)
Retained Earnings / Total Assets Pantalone and Platt (1987)
Liquidity
Non-deposit Liabilities / (Cash Thompson (1991)
+ Securities)
Total Securities / Total Assets Swicegood and Clark (2001)
Cash / Total Assets Hirtle and Lopez (1999)
(Cash + Securities) / Savings + Swicegood and Clark (2001)
Borrowings
Cash / Total Deposits Carlson (2010)
Sensitivity to Risk
Loan Loss Allowance / Total Loans Swicegood and Clark (2001)
Off Balance Sheet Commitments / Swicegood and Clark (2001)
Total Assets
Non-performing Assets / Total Swicegood and Clark (2001)
Assets
Asset Growth Swicegood and Clark (2001)
TABLE 2
INDICATORS OF FAILURE USED IN THIS STUDY
CAMELS CATEGORY MEASURE EXPECTED
RELATIONSHIP
WITH FAILURE
Capital Adequacy (CAP) Tier one Capital(a) -
Total Assets
Asset Quality (QUAL) Total Loans + Leases +
Total Assets
Management Risk (MGT) Insider Loans +
Total Loans
Earnings (EARN) Net Income -
Total Assets
Liquidity (LIQ) Cash + Securities -
Total Deposits
Sensitivity to Risk (RISK) Loan Loss Allowance +
Total Loans
(a) Tier one (core or regulatory) capital includes: common equity plus
noncumulative perpetual preferred stock plus minority interests in
consolidated subsidiaries less goodwill and other ineligible
intangible assets. The amount of eligible intangibles (including
mortgage servicing rights) included in core capital is limited in
accordance with supervisory capital regulations.
TABLE 3
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS AND TESTS OF SIGNIFICANCE OF DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN FAILED AND NOT FAILED BANKS
Panel A: Descriptive Statistics
CATEGORY STATUS MEAN STANDARD T-STATISTIC
DEVIATION (SIGNIFICANCE)
CATEGORY Not Failed 0.1206 0.09443 4.762
CAP Failed 0.0870 0.03243 (<0.001)
QUAL Not Failed 0.6525 0.17459 -6.920
Failed 0.7473 0.12225 (<0.001)
MGT Not Failed 0.0143 0.01881 2.399
Failed 0.0116 0.01527 (0.018)
EARN Not Failed 0.0084 0.05032 4.198
Failed -0.0018 0.01956 (<0.001)
LIQ Not Failed 1.0060 21.46679 2.327
Failed 0.2163 0.27656 (0.020)
RISK Not Failed 0.0131 0.01562 -4.880
Failed 0.0191 0.01459 (<0.001)
Panel B: Correlations
CAP QUAL MGT EARN
QUAL -0.377 **
MGT 0.074 ** 0.145 **
EARN 0.034 ** -0.059 ** -0.056 **
RISK 0.098 ** -0.142 ** -0.016 -0.028 **
LIQ 0.060 ** -0.063 ** -0.026 * 0.098 **
TABLE 4
THE LOGISTIC REGRESSION RESULTS OF THE RELATION AMONG
THE FINANCIAL INDICATORS AND FAILURE
VARIABLE COEFFICIENT STD. ERROR P-VALUE IMPACT (0.01)
Constant -3.416 .878 .000
CAP -34.217 6.503 .000 -.290
QUAL 3.940 1.025 .000 .040
MGT -21.560 9.805 .028 -.194
EARN -34.143 7.591 .000 -.289
LIQ -.021 .082 .798 .000
RISK 19.801 4.586 .000 .219
Model Summary: -2 Log Likelihood = 1,422.427; Nagelkerke [R.sup.2] =
0.136; [chi square] (Significance) = 203.675 (<0.001)
NOTE: See Table 2 for a description of the independent variables.
The latent dependent variable equals 0 if the bank is not failed and 1
if the bank is failed. The last column represents the impact on the
predicted likelihood of failure due to a 0.01 increase in the value
of the covariate. The impact is the change in the probability of failure
due to a 0.01 increase in the variable and is computed as
[Exp(B).sup.010]-1.
TABLE 5
THE PREDICTIVE ABILITY OF THE FAILURE MODEL INCLUDING THE EXPECTED
COSTS OF MISCLASSIFICATION AND THE RELATIVE COSTS OF TYPE I ERROR
TO TYPE II ERROR
Panel A: Estimation Sample
Ratio of the Cost of Type I to Type II Errors
1:1 10:1 20:1 30:1 40:1 60:1 100:1
Cutoff 0.120 0.060 0.040 0.040 0.020 0.020 0.010
Type I Error 0.885 0.718 0.564 0.564 0.231 0.231 0.064
Type II Error 0.004 0.025 0.080 0.080 0.309 0.309 0.550
Overall Error 0.020 0.038 0.089 0.089 0.307 0.307 0.541
ECM Model 0.021 0.165 0.299 0.409 0.483 0.573 0.665
ECM Naive 0.020 0.195 0.390 0.585 0.780 0.981 0.981
Relative Costs 1.065 0.844 0.766 0.699 0.619 0.584 0.678
Overall Correct 0.980 0.962 0.911 0.911 0.693 0.693 0.459
Panel B: Holdout Sample
Ratio of the Cost of Type I to Type II Errors
1:1 10:1 20:1 30:1 40:1 60:1 100:1
Cutoff 0.120 0.060 0.040 0.040 0.020 0.020 0.010
Type I Error 0.885 0.705 0.551 0.551 0.231 0.231 0.064
Type II Error 0.005 0.028 0.089 0.089 0.316 0.316 0.554
Overall Error 0.021 0.040 0.097 0.097 0.314 0.314 0.545
ECM Model 0.022 0.165 0.302 0.409 0.490 0.580 0.668
ECM Naive 0.020 0.195 0.390 0.585 0.780 0.981 0.981
Relative Costs 1.149 0.844 0.774 0.700 0.628 0.591 0.681
Overall Correct 0.979 0.960 0.903 0.903 0.686 0.686 0.455
NOTE: The cutoff is the probability of failure that minimizes the
expected cost of reclassification, ECM. ECM is computed as
P(FAIL)[P.sub.I][C.sub.I] + [1-P(FAIL)][P.sub.II][C.sub.II], where
P(FAIL) is the prior probability of failure (0.02), [P.sub.I] and
[P.sub.II] are the conditional probabilities of Type I and Type II
errors, respectively. [C.sub.I] and [C.sub.II] are the costs of Type I
and type II errors, respectively. The relative costs are the ECM Model
divided by the ECM Naive.