Philipp Schnabl
Martin J. Gruber Professor in Asset Management
Co-Editor, Journal of Financial Economics
Sidney Homer Director, NYU Salomon Center
NBER Research Associate
CEPR Research Affiliate
New York University
Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Research
Working Papers
Monetary Policy and the Mortgage Market
View Abstract Slides
Mortgage markets are central to monetary policy transmission. We show that this is because monetary policy impacts the supply of mortgage credit by the two largest mortgage holders:
banks and the Federal Reserve. The Fed's supply of mortgage credit consists of buying or selling mortgage-backed securities (MBS) under
its quantitative easing and tightening (QE and QT) programs. Banks' supply of mortgage credit is driven by the deposits channel of monetary policy.
Under the deposits channel, when the Fed lowers rates, banks receive large inflows of deposits. They invest these deposits in long-term fixed-rate assets,
in particular MBS, to match the interest-rate sensitivity of their income and expenses.
The deposits channel reverses when the Fed raises rates: deposits flow out and banks sell MBS. Through the combined effect of QE/QT and the deposits channel,
monetary policy drives mortgage rates, mortgage originations, and residential investment. We show that QE/QT and the deposits channel played a large role in the
expansion and contraction of mortgage credit during the 2020--24 monetary policy cycle. Our results imply that monetary policy will continue to operate through these channels in future cycles.
Deposit Franchise Runs
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We model a new type of bank run, a deposit franchise run. Banks pay below-market rates on deposits, which makes the deposit franchise a valuable asset.
For a bank to keep this value, deposits must stay in the bank; if they leave, their value is lost to the bank. This makes the deposit franchise a runnable asset. Unlike Diamond-Dybvig runs,
deposit franchise runs can occur even if the bank's loans are fully liquid. Since the deposit franchise value increases with interest rates, a run is more harmful, and
hence more likely, when rates are high. To avoid runs, banks can shorten the duration of their assets, but this can make them insolvent if interest rates fall.
Avoiding both runs and insolvency requires additional capital in proportion to the value of the uninsured portion of the deposit franchise.
We use our model to estimate deposit franchise values and show how to identify vulnerable banks in the context of the 2023 Regional Bank Crisis.
Do Banks Hedge Using Interest Rate Swaps?
View Abstract
We analyze whether banks use interest rate swaps to hedge the interest rate risk of their assets, primarily loans and securities.
By examining regulatory data on individual swap positions from the largest 250 U.S. banks, we find that banks hold large swap positions with an average notional value
of $434 billion. However, after accounting for offsetting swap positions, the average bank exhibits almost no net interest rate risk from swaps: a 100-basis-point increase
in rates reduces the value of its swaps by only 0.1% of bank equity. The variation in swap positions across banks indicates that banks use swaps to hedge interest rate risk,
thereby facilitating risk transfer within the banking sector. Additionally, we find that swap dealer banks primarily hold swap positions for market making, while non-dealer
banks use swaps to meet borrower demand for fixed-rate loans. Despite the substantial notional amounts, our findings suggest that swap positions are not economically significant
in hedging the overall interest rate risk of bank assets. Instead, banks primarily rely on their deposit franchise to hedge interest rate risk.
Credit Crunches and the Great Stagflation
View Abstract
We show that severe credit crunches contributed to the four successive stagflationary
cycles that characterize the Great Stagflation of 1965-1982. The crunches were the
result of large outflows of deposits from the banking system that intensified whenever
inflation increased. These deposit outflows were due to the Fed's policy of imposing a
low ceiling on bank deposit rates, which eliminated the passthrough of the Fed funds
rate to deposits and caused real deposit rates to become increasingly negative as inflation
rose. Since credit is an input to firms' production, the high cost of credit during
the crunches forced firms to raise prices and cut output and employment, i.e., they
led to stagflation. Consistent with this theory, we find a tight relationship between
declines in deposits and bank credit, the buildup of unfilled manufacturing orders
and inflation, and declines in GDP growth, employment and inflation. We then test
the theory in the cross section of manufacturing industries sorted by their dependence
on bank financing and find that during the credit crunches, more finance-dependent
firms raised prices and cut output more, held less inventory, and hired fewer employees.
We similarly find these results for firms financed by banks located in areas that
were more exposed to deposit outflows. Our findings imply that the supply shocks
generated by the credit crunches were an important driver of the Great Stagflation.
The Financial Origins of the Rise and Fall of American Inflation
View Abstract Slides
We propose and test a new explanation for the rise and fall of the Great Inflation, a defining event in macroeconomics. We argue that its rise was due to the imposition of binding deposit rate ceilings under the law known as Regulation Q, and that its fall was due to the removal of these ceilings once the law was repealed. Deposits were the dominant form of saving at the time, hence Regulation Q suppressed the return to saving. This drove up aggregate demand, which pushed up inflation and further lowered the real return to saving, setting off an inflation spiral. The repeal of Regulation Q broke the spiral by sending deposit rates sharply higher. We document that the rise and fall of the Great Inflation lines up closely with the imposition and repeal of Regulation Q and the enormous changes in deposit rates and quantities it produced. We further test this explanation in the cross section using detailed data on local deposit markets and inflation. By exploiting four different sources of geographic variation, we show that the degree to which Regulation Q was binding has a large impact on local inflation, consistent with the hypothesis that Regulation Q explains the observed variation in aggregate inflation. We conclude that in the presence of financial frictions the Fed may be unable to control inflation regardless of its policy rule.
Publications
Specialization in Bank Lending: Evidence from Exporting Firms
We develop an empirical approach for identifying specialization in bank lending using granular data on borrower activities. We illustrate the approach by characterizing bank specialization by export market, combining bank, loan, and export data for all firms in Peru. We find that all banks specialize in at least one export market, that specialization affects a firm's choice of new lenders and how to finance exports, and that credit supply shocks disproportionately affect a firm's exports to markets where the lender specializes in. Thus, bank market-specific specialization makes credit difficult to substitute, with consequences for competition in credit markets and the transmission of credit shocks to the economy.
The Rise of Finance Companies and FinTech Lenders in Small Business Lending
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We document that finance companies and FinTech Lenders increased lending to small businesses after the 2008 financial crisis. We show that most of the increase substituted for a reduction in lending by banks. In counties where banks had a larger market share before the crisis, finance companies and FinTech lenders increased their lending more. By 2016, the increase in finance company and FinTech lending almost perfectly offset the decrease in bank lending. We control for firms' credit demand by examining lending by different lenders to the same firm, by comparing firms within the same narrow industry, and by comparing firms pledging the same collateral. Consistent with the substitution of bank lending with finance company and FinTech lending, we find limited long-term effects on employment, wages, new business creation, and business expansion. Our results show that finance companies and FinTech lenders are major suppliers of credit to small businesses and played an important role in the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.
How Monetary Policy Shaped the Housing Boom
View Abstract Slides
Between 2003 and 2006, the Federal Reserve raised rates by 4.25%. Yet it was precisely during this period that the housing boom accelerated, fueled by rapid growth in mortgage lending. There is deep disagreement about how, or even if, monetary policy impacted the boom. Using differences in exposure to the deposits channel of monetary policy, we show that Fed tightening induced a large reduction in banks' deposit funding, which led banks to contract portfolio mortgage lending by 32%. However, this contraction was largely offset by substitution to privately-securitized (PLS) mortgages, led by nonbank originators. Fed tightening thus induced a shift in mortgage lending away from stable, insured deposit funding toward run-prone and fragile capital markets funding with little impact on overall lending. We find similar results during the most recent tightening cycle over 2014--2017 when PLS lending reemerged.
Banking on Deposits: Maturity Transformation without Interest Rate Risk
View Abstract Slides U.S. Call Report Data Appendix Replication Kit
We show that maturity transformation does not expose banks to interest rate risk---it hedges it. The reason is the deposit franchise, which allows banks to pay deposit rates that are low and insensitive to market interest rates. Hedging the deposit franchise requires banks to earn income that is also insensitive, i.e. to lend long-term at fixed rates. As predicted by this theory, we show that banks closely match the interest-rate sensitivities of their income and expenses, and that this insulates their equity from interest rate shocks. Our results provide an explanation for why banks supply long-term credit.
The Role of Technology in Mortgage Lending
View Abstract Slides FinTech Lending Data Appendix
Technology-based ("FinTech") lenders increased their market share of U.S. mortgage lending from 2% to 8% from 2010 to 2016.
Using loan-level data on mortgage applications and originations, we show that FinTech lenders process mortgage applications 20% faster than other lenders,
controlling for observable characteristics. Faster processing does not come at the cost of higher defaults. FinTech lenders adjust supply more elastically
than other lenders in response to exogenous mortgage demand shocks. In areas with more FinTech lending, borrowers refinance more, especially when it is in their interest to do so.
We find no evidence that FinTech lenders target
borrowers with low access to finance.
Liquidity, Risk Premia, and the Financial Transmission of Monetary Policy
View Abstract
In recent years there has been a resurgence of research on the transmission of monetary policy through the financial system, fueled in part by empirical findings showing that monetary policy affects asset prices and the financial system in ways not explained by the New Keynesian paradigm. In particular, monetary policy appears to impact risk premia in stock and bond prices, and to effectively control the liquidity premium in the economy (the cost of holding liquid assets). We review these findings and recent theories proposed to explain them, and outline a conceptual framework that unifies them. The framework revolves around the central role of liquidity in risk sharing, and how monetary policy governs its production and use within the financial sector.
A Model of Monetary Policy and Risk Premia
View Abstract Slides
We develop a dynamic asset pricing model in which monetary policy affects the risk premium component of the cost of capital. Risk-tolerant agents (banks) borrow from risk-averse agents (i.e. take deposits) to fund levered investments. Leverage exposes banks to funding risk, which they insure by holding liquidity buffers. By changing the nominal rate the central bank influences the liquidity premium in financial markets, and hence the cost of taking leverage. Lower nominal rates make liquidity cheaper and raise leverage, resulting in lower risk premia and higher asset prices, volatility, investment, and growth. We analyze forward guidance, a “Greenspan put”, and the yield curve.
The Deposit Channel of Monetary Policy
View Abstract Slides Appendix Replication Data U.S. Call Report Data Note on Begenau and Stafford (2022)
We present a new channel for the transmission of monetary policy, the deposits channel. We show that when the Fed funds rate rises, banks widen the spreads they charge on deposits, and deposits flow out of the banking system. We present a model where this is due to market power in deposit markets. Consistent with the market power mechanism, deposit spreads increase more and deposits flow out more in concentrated markets. This is true even when we control for lending opportunities by only comparing different branches of the same bank. Since deposits are the main source of liquid assets for households, the deposits channel can explain the observed strong relationship between the liquidity premium and the Fed funds rate. Since deposits are also a uniquely stable funding source for banks, the deposits channel impacts bank lending. When the Fed funds rate rises, banks that raise deposits in concentrated markets contract their lending by more than other banks. Our estimates imply that the deposits channel can account for the entire transmission of monetary policy through bank balance sheets.
Who Borrows From the Lender of Last Resort?
View Abstract Slides
We analyze lender of last resort (LOLR) lending during the European sovereign debt crisis. Using a novel data set on all central bank lending and collateral, we show that weakly capitalized banks took out more LOLR loans and used riskier collateral than strongly capitalized banks. We also find that weakly capitalized banks used LOLR loans to buy risky assets such as distressed sovereign debt. This resulted in a reallocation of risky assets from strongly to weakly capitalized banks. Our findings cannot be explained by classical LOLR theory. Rather, they point to risk taking by banks, both independently and with the encouragement of governments, and highlight the benefit of unifying LOLR lending and bank supervision.
Dissecting the Effect of Credit Supply on Trade: Evidence from Matched Credit-Export Data
View Abstract Slides
We estimate the elasticity of exports to credit using matched customs and firm-level bank credit data from Peru. To account for non-credit determinants of exports, we compare changes in exports of the same product and to the same destination by firms borrowing from banks differentially affected by capital-flow reversals during the 2008 financial crisis. We find that credit shocks affect the intensive margin of exports, but have no significant impact on entry or exit of firms to new product and destination markets. Our results suggest that credit shortages reduce exports through raising the variable cost of production, rather than the cost of financing sunk entry investments.
A Pyrrhic Victory? Bank Bailouts and Sovereign Credit Risk
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We model a loop between sovereign and bank credit risk. A distressed financial sector induces government bailouts, whose cost increases sovereign credit risk. Increased sovereign credit risk in turn weakens the financial sector by eroding the value of its government guarantees and bond holdings. Using credit default swap (CDS) rates on European sovereigns and banks, we show that bailouts triggered the rise of sovereign credit risk in 2008. We document that post-bailout changes in sovereign CDS explain changes in bank CDS even after controlling for aggregate and bank-level determinants of credit spreads, confirming the sovereign-bank loop.
How Safe are Money Market Funds?
View Abstract
We examine the risk-taking behavior of money market funds during the financial crisis of 2007 to 2010. We find that (1) money market funds experienced an unprecedented expansion in their risk-taking opportunities; (2) funds had strong incentives to take on risk because fund inflows were highly responsive to fund yields; (3) funds sponsored by financial intermediaries with more money fund business took on more risk; and (4) funds suffered runs as a result of their risk taking. This evidence suggests that money market funds lack safety because they have strong incentives to take on risk when the opportunity arises and are vulnerable to runs.
Securitization Without Risk Transfer
View Abstract
We analyze asset-backed commercial paper conduits, which experienced a shadowbanking run and played a central role in the early phase of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. We document that commercial banks set up conduits to securitize assets worth $1.3 trillion while insuring the newly securitized assets using explicit guarantees. We show that regulatory arbitrage was an important motive behind setting up conduits. In particular, the guarantees were structured so as to reduce regulatory capital requirements, more so by banks with less capital, and while still providing recourse to bank balance sheets for outside investors. Consistent with such recourse, we find that conduits provided little risk transfer during the run, as losses from conduits remained with banks instead of outside investors and banks with more exposure to conduits had lower stock returns.
Efficient Recapitalization
View Abstract
We analyze government interventions to recapitalize a banking sector that restricts lending to firms because of debt overhang. We find that the efficient recapitalization program injects capital against preferred stock plus warrants and conditions implementation on sufficient bank participation. Preferred stock plus warrants reduces opportunistic participation by banks that do not require recapitalization, although conditional implementation limits free riding by banks that benefit from lower credit risk because of other banks' participation. Efficient recapitalization is profitable if the benefits of lower aggregate credit risk exceed the cost of implicit transfers to bank debt holders.
The International Transmission of Bank Liquidity Shocks: Evidence from an Emerging Market
View Abstract
I exploit the 1998 Russian default as a negative liquidity shock to international banks and analyze its transmission to Peru. I find that after the shock international banks reduce bank-to-bank lending to Peruvian banks and Peruvian banks reduce lending to Peruvian firms. The effect is strongest for domestically owned banks that borrow internationally, intermediate for foreign-owned banks, and weakest for locally funded banks. I control for credit demand by examining firms that borrow from several banks. These results suggest that international banks transmit liquidity shocks across countries and that negative liquidity shocks reduce bank lending in affected countries.
Writing on the 2023 banking turmoil
Why do banks invest in MBS?, March 13, 2023, (link)
Valuing the Deposit Franchise Value, March 19, 2023, (link)
Banking on Deposits: A numerical example, March 19, 2023, (link)
Banks and Interest Rates, April 3, 2023, (link)
Banking on Uninsured Deposits, April 5, 2023, (link)
View Abstract
We model the impact of interest rates on the liquidity risk of banks. Banks hedge
the interest rate risk of their assets with their deposit franchise: when rates rise the
value of their assets falls, but the value of their deposit franchise rises. Yet the deposit
franchise is only valuable if deposits remain in the bank. This makes the deposit
franchise runnable if deposits are uninsured. We show there is no run equilibrium
at low interest rates, but a run equilibrium emerges as rates rise. This is because
the value of the deposit franchise rises with rates, making a run more destructive,
and hence more likely. To prevent a run, the bank needs to keep the value of its
uninsured deposit franchise from exceeding its equity. It can do so by shortening
the duration of its assets, so that their value falls less if rates rise. However, this
undoes the bank's interest rate hedge, which can make it insolvent if rates fall. The
uninsured deposit franchise therefore poses a risk management dilemma: the bank
cannot simultaneously hedge its interest rate and liquidity risk exposures. We show
banks can address the dilemma by buying claims with option-like payoffs to interest
rates, or by raising additional capital as interest rates rise. These strategies minimize
the additional capital needed to prevent a run if rates rise and avoid insolvency if
rates fall.
Do Banks Hedge Using Interest Rate Swaps?, April 10, 2023, (link)
View Abstract
We ask whether banks use interest rate swaps to hedge the interest rate risk of
their assets, primarily loans and securities. To this end, we use regulatory data on
individual swap positions for the largest 250 U.S. banks. We find that the average bank has a
large notional amount of $434 billion. But after accounting for the significant extent to which swap positions offset each other, the
average bank has essentially no net interest rate risk from swaps: a 100-basis-point
increase in rates increases the value of its swaps by 0.1% of equity. There is variation
across banks, with some bank swap positions decreasing and some increasing with rates,
but aggregating swap positions at the level of the banking system reveals that most swap
exposures are offsetting. Therefore, as a description of prevailing practice, we conclude
that swap positions are not economically significant in hedging the interest rate risk of
bank assets.
Data on historical bank-level deposit betas, April 21, 2023, (link)
Presentation at Fed Atlanta Financial Markets Conference, May 14, 2023, (video link)
Presentation at NBER Summer Institute Panel on Banking Turmoil, July 11, 2023, (video link)
Book on SVB Crisis and Policy Response, July 17, 2023, (book)
Book Chapters, Conference Proceedings, and Non-Refereed Publications
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