Search Results
Report
Defined contribution plans: the role of income, age and match rates
The growth of defined contribution plans has sparked debate concerning their effectiveness as a vehicle for retirement saving. Using data from the May 1993 Employee Benefits Supplement to the Current Population Survey, this paper examines whether DC plans have expanded overall pension coverage and whether their effects on retirement saving are the same across different age and income groups. Not surprisingly, I find that contributions to and early withdrawals from DC plans are strongly affected by income and age. The paper then discusses whether employer match rates are useful tools for ...
Working Paper
Enhancing Stress Tests by Adding Macroprudential Elements
The use of stress testing for macroprudential objectives is advanced by modeling spillovers within the financial sector or between the real and financial sectors. In this chapter, we discuss several macroprudential elements that capture these spillovers and how they might be added to stress test frameworks. We show how funding spillovers can be modeled as an add-on, using a reduced-form relation between banks' funding cost, bank capital and economic activity. Using a calibration to US data, we project very modest funding spillovers conditional on the DFAST 2018 severely adverse scenario. ...
Journal Article
Profits and balance sheet developments at U.S. commercial banks in 2007
Reviews recent developments in the balance sheets and in the profitability of U.S. commercial banks. The article discusses how developments in the U.S. banking industry in 2007 and early 2008 were related to changes in financial markets and in the broader economy.
Journal Article
Profits and balance sheet developments at U.S. commercial banks in 2000
The profitability of the U.S. commercial banking industry remained robust in 2000, but returns on equity and on commercial bank assets fell back somewhat from the peak reached in 1999. The falloff reflected a continuation of the decline in net interest margin that dates from the extraordinarily high levels of the early 1990s, a significant increase in loan-loss provisions, and a notable slowing in noninterest income growth. The expansion of bank balance sheets was much stronger in 2000 than in the preceding year, as growth of both loans and securities accelerated. The pickup in loan growth ...
Journal Article
Risk management by structured derivative product companies
In the early 1990s, some U.S. securities firms and foreign banks began creating subsidiary vehicles--known as structured derivative product companies (DPCs)--whose special risk management approaches enabled them to obtain triple-A credit ratings with the least amount of capital. At first, market observers expected credit-sensitive customers to turn increasingly to these DPCs. However, the authors find that structured DPCs--despite their superior ratings--have failed to live up to their initial promise and have yet to gain a competitive edge as intermediaries in the derivatives markets.
Journal Article
Profits and balance sheet developments at U.S. commercial banks in 2001
Despite the economic slowdown, the profitability of the U.S. commercial banking industry remained high in 2001. Although the weak economy contributed to a sharp rise in provisions for loan and lease losses, those losses were offset in large part by an advance in realized gains on investment account securities as banks' portfolios benefited from declining short- and intermediate-term market interest rates. Profits were also supported by reductions in noninterest expense, as large merger-related charges in 2000 were not repeated last year. Lower short-term interest rates also spurred a rapid ...
Working Paper
Medicaid's nursing home coverage and asset transfers
Medicaid covers the costs of a long nursing home stay. This coverage may create an incentive for the elderly to transfer their assets to their children in order to qualify for Medicaid before entering a nursing home. Previous researchers had found little evidence that such behavior was widespread or that asset transfers were large. However, data from AHEAD suggest that the self-assessed probability of entering a nursing home is a significant determinant of the likelihood of making an asset transfer. The budgetary implications of these Medicaid-induced asset transfers are probably fairly ...
Working Paper
Changes in bank lending standards and the macroeconomy
Identifying the macroeconomic effects of credit supply disruptions is difficult because many of the same factors that influence the supply of bank loans can also affect the demand for credit. Using bank-level responses to the Federal Reserve's Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey, we decompose the reported changes in lending standards--a commonly-used indicator of changes in credit supply conditions--into a component that captures the change in banks' lending posture in response to bank-specific and macroeconomic factors that also affect loan demand and a residual component, which provides a ...
Journal Article
The economic performance of small banks, 1985-2000
Several trends in the financial industry over the past decade and a half have potentially threatened the competitiveness of small banks. Among these developments are the numerous mergers that increased the size and scope of large banks and the increased competition from mutual funds and other nonbank financial institutions. This article examines the economic performance of small banks during the 1985-2000 period by focusing on their ability to attract and profitably intermediate insured and uninsured deposits. It finds that the expansion of deposits and assets at small banks, when adjusted to ...
Report
How workers use 401(k) plans: the participation, contribution, and withdrawal decisions
This paper examines how workers use 401(k) plans by examining their participation, contribution, and withdrawal decisions. Sixty-five percent of eligible workers participate in 401(k) plans. Employee participation rises with income, age, job tenure, and education. While participation also rises if the employer matches contributions, 401(k) participation does not grow with the rate of matching. When pension plan assets are withdrawn in lump-sum distributions before retirement, just 28 percent of distribution recipients (representing 56 percent of distribution assets) roll over the withdrawn ...