Showing papers by "James R. Barth published in 1992"

The Future of American Banking

Abstract: The future of American banking is in doubt and the industry and the federal insurance fund that helps support it are in turmoil. The ingredients of the turmoil have been simmering in public view since at least the early 1980s when commercial bank loans to lesser developed countries (LDCs) began to default. The difficulties began to boil at the end of the decade when the prospect first arose that the banks' deposit insurer, the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF) that is administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), might require dollars to resolve bank failure as occurred in the savings and loan debacle. This book frames the major economic and policy issues raised by the banking crisis whose resolution largely determines the future of American banking. It focuses on the current reported condition of the banking industry, concentrating on large banks in particular. A longer-run economic prognosis for the banking industry is presented and the implications of future bank failures for the financial services sector and federal regulatory policy are discussed. Most importantly the book contains suggestions for changes in the nation's deposit-insurance system and accompanying banking laws. These changes would reduce the federal government's deposit insurance liability and would provide banks with potentially profitable opportunities. The study includes a wealth of data on the financial condition of American banks and the system as a whole, some of it not easily obtainable from any other source. The authors are internationally recognized as knowledgeable experts on the state of the American banking system and the options and prospects for US banking reform.

Pitfalls in using market prices to assess the financial condition of depository institutions

Abstract: In this article we examine the information that stock prices provide about the financial condition of federally insured thrift institutions. In order to assess their financial condition from the different perspectives of stockholders and the federal insurer, we calculate the value of the put option of federal deposit insurance available to thrift institutions. Our results demonstrate that the two perspectives often provide, particularly for unhealthy institutions, quite different views of the financial condition of individual institutions.

Turmoil among depository institutions: Implications for the U.S. real estate market

Abstract: Since the early 1980s, turmoil unlike any since the Great Depression has caused such unprecedented failures among federally insured banks and savings and loans (S & Ls) that the insurance funds for these institutions were driven into insolvency. The traditional commitment of S & Ls and the expanding commitment of banks to housing finance make it important to examine the implications of these record failures for the availability of owner‐occupied housing loans. The substantial commitment of banks and the more recent commitment of S & Ls to commercial real estate also necessitate an examination of the implications of depository failures on the commercial real estate market. This paper therefore will examine selected data from the past decade and assess the implications of the recent turmoil within the federally insured depository industry for the financing of U.S. real estate.

Emerging challenges for the international financial services industry

Abstract: Introduction, James R. Barth and Philip F. Bartholomew Europe 1992 - integrating the financial services sector, Herbert Kaufman comment, Robert E. Litan international bank capital standards, George J. Benston comment, Charles W. Calomiris financial institutions reform, recovery and enforcement act - reshaping the US depository institutions' regulatory structure, Richard Nelson comment, Gillian Garcia the evolution of Japanese banking - isolation to globalization, Thomas Cargill and Soichi Royama comment, William Pugh Canada and the US - will financial integration work?, Philip F. Bartholomew et al government deposit insurance - problems and prospects, Larry Wall comment, Edward Kane central banking - a market price approach to policy in a rapidly changing financial environment, Robert Keleher separation of banking and commerce, Larry Mole comment, George Kaufman needed - a banking meltdown policy, Lewis J. Spellman comment, R. Dan Brumbaugh Jr.