The Stock Market and Bank Risk-Taking

Abstract

Using confidential supervisory risk ratings, we document that banks increase risk after going public compared to a control group of banks that filed to go public but withdrew their filings for plausibly exogenous reasons. The increase in risk improves short-term performance at the expense of long-term performance. We argue that the increase in risk stems from pressure to maximize short-term stock prices and earnings once the bank is publicly traded. After going public, banks owned by investors that place greater value on short-term performance increase risk more, and those managed by CEOs with more short-term compensation also increase risk more.