From the Outside

Australian bank capital adequacy – “a more flexible and resilient capital framework”

This post looks at a Discussion Paper published by APRA in late 2020 titled “A more flexible and resilient capital framework for ADIs” setting out how it proposes to wrap up a number of prior consultations on a variety of aspects of ADI (authorised deposit-taking institution) capital reform in Australia. The next step in the roll out of the revised framework is to conduct a quantitive impact study (QIS) with selected ADIs to ensure that the proposed final standards are appropriately calibrated.

Key elements of the revised framework (effective 1 January 2023) include:

More risk-sensitive risk weights (mostly for residential mortgages but also SME lending) that are expected to reduce average risk weights by approximately 10% for Internal Ratings Based (IRB) banks and 7% for banks operating under the Standardised Approach (SA) to capital adequacy,
Support for enhanced competition between the big and small ADIs via a series of initiatives intended to limit the differences between the IRB and SA, approaches (though APRA also offers evidence that the existing differences are not as great as some claim),
Improved transparency and comparability both with international peer banks and between the big IRB banks and the smaller SA banks
Improved flexibility in capital requirements via an increase in the size of regulatory capital buffers.

Improved risk sensitivity (lower risk weights)

Improved risk sensitivity is obviously a two edged sword (capital requirements could increase) but APRA estimates that the overall impact of the proposed revisions will be to reduce average risk weights for IRB ADIs by 10% and by 7% for Standardised ADIs. I have published a couple of posts already on the proposed changes to residential mortgage risk weights (see here and here) so I don’t intend to cover that in any detail in this post.

The main points to note regarding residential mortgages are:

Standardised ADIs get
- more segmentation by loan purpose,
- a reduction in the lowest risk weight applied to the best quality loans from 35% to 20% and
- a 40% Credit Conversion Factor (CCF) for off-balance sheet exposures
IRB ADIs see
- the higher than Basel “correlation adjustment” currently used to narrow the difference between IRB and SA risk weights replaced by a simple “scalar” adjustment,
- the existing 20% LGD floor reduced to 10% for approved LGD models and
- recognition of the risk reduction value of Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance (LMI) in line with the SA.

I have not looked closely at the changes impacting the other RWA exposures but list them here for completeness:

SME lending
- Standardised ADIs – RW applied under the SA will recognise the value of commercial property security while RW for loans not secured by property will be reduced from 100% to 75% for loans less than $1.5m and 85% otherwise
- IRB ADIs – the thresholds for applying the Retail SME approach and the Corporate SME approach will be increased
Other credit portfolios
- Standardised ADIs see no real change (existing RW are already largely aligned with the Basel framework)
- IRB ADIs will see the overall credit scalar in the IRB RW formula increased from 1.06x to 1.1x, risk estimates will be more closely aligned to those of overseas peers (but still higher than those peers) and models will be permitted for the calculation of capital requirements for commercial property exposures
New Zealand based exposures
- RWA determined under RBNZ requirements will be used for group capital requirements

Enhanced competition, increased transparency and comparability

The main points to note here are:

The risk weight initiatives listed above should address a long standing complaint from the Standardised ADIs that the higher risk weights they are subject to place them at a competitive disadvantage relative to IRB ADIs
Note however that APRA has also provided evidence that the difference in capital requirements is not as large as is often claimed and can be justified by differences in the risk of the loan portfolios that different types of ADIs typically hold
The extent of any competitive disadvantage due to capital requirements will be further clarified by the requirement that IRB ADIs also publish capital ratios under the Standardised Approach
The extent of the differences between the capital requirements applied by APRA and those used to calculate the ratios reported by international peer banks will also be reduced thereby enhancing the transparency of the Australian ADI capital strength versus the international peer groups. This will make the “top quartile” test employed to determine the “unquestionably strong” benchmark simpler and more transparent.

Increased resilience via larger more flexible capital buffers

We noted above that RWA are expected to reduce by around 10 per cent on average for IRB banks and 7 per cent on average for standardised banks. All other things being equal this will translate into a very visible increase in reported capital ratios which requires a recalibration of the balance between minimum requirements and capital buffers:

The minimum Prudential Capital Requirement (PCR) remains unchanged in percentage terms (4.5%), as does the minimum threshold for Point of Non-Viability (PONV) conversion (5.125%), but these requirements fall in dollar terms due to the decline in average RWA
The Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB) – will be increased by 150 basis points (but only for IRB ADIs)
The default Countercyclical Capital Buffer (CCyB) – will be set at 100 basis points (versus zero under the current approach)

Minimum capital requirements

At face value, a reduction in minimum capital requirements sounds like a cause for concern. In theory you can argue that there is a slightly lower amount of CET1 capital available in a scenario in which a bank has breached the PONV threshold that triggers the conversion of Additional Tier 1 and any other layers of loss absorbing capital. In practice, however, this theoretical risk is more than offset by the increase in the CCB and the CCyB. APRA is at pains to emphasise that, all other things being equal, the dollar value of capital that ADI’s currently hold consistent with the Unquestionably Strong benchmarks introduced in 2017 does not change under the revised framework.

With amendments across a number of dimensions, reported capital ratios will inevitably change … However, APRA remains committed to its previous position that an ADI that currently meets the ‘unquestionably strong’ benchmarks under the current framework should have sufficient capital to meet any new requirements. Changing the presentation of capital ratios will not impact overall capital strength or the quantum of capital required to be considered ‘unquestionably strong’; but instead improves comparability, supervisory flexibility and international alignment.
“A more flexible and resilient capital framework for ADIs, APRA Discussion Paper, 8 December 2020 (page 5)

In addition to the increased base levels of CET1, the systemically important ADI are holding increasing amounts of “Additional Loss Absorbing Capital” that can be bailed-in to create CET1 capital in the event that a bank is at risk of breaching the PONV threshold. There are differences of opinion on whether APRA would be willing to pull the trigger to convert these instruments. We won’t know for sure until the time comes, but my colours are nailed to the assumption that APRA will much prefer to see shareholders get diluted rather than having to use government funds to bail-out a bank.

Capital Conservation Buffer

The 150bp expansion in the CCB only applies to IRB ADIs. APRA attributes this to the need to respond to “the greater level of risk sensitivity inherent in the IRB approach” (page 16 of the Discussion Paper). They don’t actually use the term but I think of this as a means of absorbing some of the pro-cyclicality that is inherent in any risk sensitive capital adequacy measure.

A simple way to think about this change is to link the 150bp increase to the roughly equivalent benefit of the 10% decline in RWA expected to flow from RWA changes set out in the paper. We note however that SA gets 7% decline due to improved risk sensitivity but no equivalent increase in CCB. So we get enhanced risk sensitivity in the IRB approach via the revised risk weights without exacerbating the concern about the difference in capital requirements.

However the increased risk sensitivity of the IRB approach also manifests in heightened sensitivity to an economic downturn. All other things being equal both Standardised and IRB ADIs should face similar increases in loan loss charges. The impact on IRB ADI capital ratios is however amplified by the increase in average RWs under stress. I don’t have any hard data to refer to but would not be surprised if the RWA inflation effect contributed another 150bp to the decline in capital ratios we see quoted in stress testing results under this new framework.

Viewed from this perspective the expanded CCB not only neutralises the benefit of lower IRB risk weights, it also helps absorb the increased sensitivity to declines in capital ratios that IRB ADIs can be expected to experience under a stress scenario.

Counter-cyclical Capital Buffer

The CCyB has, for me at least, always been a sound idea badly executed. It became part of the international macro prudential toolkit in 2016 and is intended to ensure that, under adverse conditions, the banking sector in aggregate has sufficient surplus capital on hand required to maintain the flow of credit in the economy without compromising its compliance with prudential requirements.

A key feature in the original Basel Committee design specification is that the buffer is intended to be deployed in response to high levels of aggregate credit growth (i.e high relative to the sustainable long term trend rates whatever that might be) which their research has identified as an indicator of heightened systemic risk. That does not preclude bank supervisors from deploying the buffer at other times as they see fit, but pro-actively responding to excess credit growth has been a core part of the rationale underpinning its development.

The idea of having a buffer that can be released in response to a downturn makes perfect sense but the analytical structure the Basel Committee developed to guide its deployment seems unnecessarily complex. The simple non-zero default level that APRA proposes to adopt is arguably a better (if not the best) approach and one that other countries are already pursuing (see here, here and here).

None of this pro-cyclicality benefit is spelled out in the material APRA released so I may be reading too much into the material. If I am analysing it correctly if is a subtle but still useful benefit of the package of changes that APRA is pursuing.

Conclusion

Broadly speaking, I think there is a lot to like in the revised framework that APRA is pursuing

Risk weights that are both more risk sensitive but also more closely aligned under the two approaches to capital adequacy measurement (IRB and Standardised)
An increased share of the capital requirement allocated to buffers that can be used rather than minimum requirements that can’t
A better approach to setting the CCyB

My primary concern is that the amplified pro-cyclicality in capital ratios that is seemingly inherent in any risk sensitive capital framework seems likely to increase but there is very little discussion of this factor . There are tools to manage the impact but one of the key lessons I have taken away from four decades in this game is that the markets hate surprises. Far better to quantify the extent of any amplified pro-cyclicality in capital ratios prior to the next crisis than to try to explain the impacts when capital ratios start to decline more quickly than expected during the next downturn/crisis.

Let me know what I am missing …

Tony – From the Outside

Some of the backstory

The idea that Australian banks needed to be “Unquestionably Strong” has dominated the local capital adequacy discussion for the past few years. The idea originated in a recommendation of the Australian Financial System Inquiry (2014) based on the rationale that Australian banks should both be and, equally importantly, be perceived to be more resilient than the international peers with which they compete for funding in the international capital markets.In July 2017, APRA translated the FSI recommendation into practical guidance in an announcement supported by a longer information paper.

For most people, this all condensed into a very simple message, the systemically important Australian banks needed to maintain a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of at least 10.5%. The smaller banks have their own Unquestionably Strong benchmark but most of the public scrutiny seems to have focussed on the larger banks.

In the background, an equally important discussion has been playing out regarding the extent to which the Unquestionably Strong framework should take account of the “comparability” and “transparency” of that measure of strength and the ways in which “flexibility” and “resilience” could be added to the mix. This discussion kicked off in earnest with a March 2018 discussion paper (covered in more detail here) and has come to a conclusion with the December 2020 release of the APRA Discussion Paper explored in the post above.

Allowing companies to fail

I suspect (but can’t prove) that creative destruction is one of the under appreciated factors that underpin the health of the economy. There is quite a lot of evidence however that creative destruction has been suppressed since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The rights and wrongs of the extent to which bail-outs were and continue to be necessary is too big a topic to cover in this post.

For the record, I do believe that the bail-outs of the banks were necessary at the time but that “bail-in” gives bank supervisors a very real option to avoid having to do this in the future. The increase in capital requirements are also likely to reduce the risk of a bail-in being required. Others may disagree and my views chiefly relate to the Australian banking system which is where my professional expertise is based. The issues associated with COVID-19 raise a whole lot of related but, in many ways, different issues. At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s complicated.

Against that background, I found this short article published on the VoxEU website worth reading as another reminder of the value of allowing companies to fail and/or be restructured. The conclusion of the article (copied below) gives you the key points the authors derive from their research

We investigate a large number of stakeholders that could be negatively affected by a fire sale but find little evidence for negative externalities. The main effect of fire sales is a wealth transfer from the seller to the buyer. Thus, from a welfare perspective, the costs associated with fire sales of corporate assets are much lower than previously thought based on an analysis of seller costs only. From a policy perspective, these findings indicate that the merits of bailouts as a response to the potential losses associated with fire sales are limited, especially given the moral hazard and the other distortions caused by these bailouts.
We recognise that the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is unparalleled since the WWII and the Great Depression, and hence, some emergency measures and bailouts were likely necessary to prevent a meltdown of economic activity. However, one difference between the current crisis and the Global Crisis is the apparent lack of fire sales of struggling companies or investments into such companies at fire-sale prices. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, for instance, invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs in September 2008 and $3 billion in General Electric in October 2008, while Warren Buffett’s firm has not undertaken any major investments during the COVID-19 crisis (Financial Times 2020). Our results therefore suggest that, at least at the margin, fire sales would have been an effective alternative to bailouts, especially for large bailouts such as for the airlines in the US.
“The merits of fire sales and bailouts in light of the COVID-19 pandemic”, Jean-Marie Meier and Henri Servaes, 18 January 2021.

Dee Hock, the Father of Fintech

Marc Rubinstein writing in his “Net Interest” newsletter has a fascinating story about the history of Visa. The article is interesting on a number of levels.

It is partly a story of the battle currently being played out in the “payments” area of financial services but it also introduced me to the story of Dee Hock who convinced Bank of America to give up ownership of the credit card licensing business that it had built up around the BankAmericard it had launched in 1958. His efforts led to the formation of a new company, jointly owned by the banks participating in the credit card program, that was the foundation of Visa.

The interesting part was that Visa was designed from its inception to operate in a decentralised manner that balanced cooperation and competition. The tension between cooperation (aka “order”) and competition (sometimes leading to “disorder”) is pervasive in the world of money and finance. Rubinstein explores some of the lessons that the current crop of decentralised finance visionaries might take away from this earlier iteration of Fintech. Rubinstein’s post encouraged me to do a bit more digging on Hock himself (see this article from FastCompany for example) and I have also bought Hock’s book (“One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization“) to read.

There is a much longer post to write on the issues discussed in Rubinstein’s post but that is for another day (i.e. when I think I understand them so I am not planning to do this any time soon). At this stage I will just call out one of the issues that I think need to be covered in any complete discussion of the potential for Fintech to replace banks – the role “elasticity of credit” plays in monetary systems.

“Elasticity of credit”

It seems pretty clear that the Fintech companies offer a viable (maybe compelling) alternative to banks in the payment part of the monetary system but economies also seem to need some “elasticity” in the supply of credit. It is not obvious how Fintech companies might meet this need so maybe there remains an area where properly regulated and supervised banks continue to have a role to play. That is my hypothesis at any rate which I freely admit might be wrong. This paper by Claudio Borio offers a good discussion of this issue (for the short version see here for a post I did on Borio’s paper).

Recommended

Tony – From the Outside

The potential for computer code to supplant the traditional operating framework of the economy and society

I am very far from expert on the issues discussed in the podcast this post links to, I am trying however to “up-skill”. The subject matter is a touch wonky so this is not a must listen recommendation. That said, the questions of DeFi and cryptocurrency are ones that I believe any serious student of banking and finance needs to understand.

In the podcast Demetri Kofinas (Host of the Hidden Forces podcast) is interviewed by two strong advocates of DeFi and crypto debating the potential of computer code to supplant legal structures as an operating framework for society. Demetri supports the idea that smart contracts can automate agreements but argues against the belief that self-executing software can or should supplant our legal systems. Computer code has huge potential in these applications but he maintains that you will still rely on some traditional legal and government framework to protect property rights and enforce property rights. He also argues that it is naïve and dangerous to synonymize open-source software with liberal democracy.

I am trying to keep an open mind on these questions but (thus far) broadly support the positions Demetri argues. There is a lot of ground to cover but Demetri is (based on my non-expert understanding of the topic) one of the better sources of insight I have come across.

Tony – From the Outside

First-time buyers: how do they finance their purchases and what’s changed? – Bank Underground

Some interesting research out of the UK examining the impact of a variety of factors associated with first time house purchases.

Our results support claim that average FTBs are increasingly higher up the income distribution for their age. And slower than average income growth for younger workers have worked against FTBs. But our results challenge the view that average FTB ages have got much higher. And while FTBs on average are borrowing more in nominal terms, they aren’t spending more of their income on mortgage repayments than before: cheaper credit has roughly cancelled out the effect of bigger mortgages.

— Read on bankunderground.co.uk/2020/09/16/first-time-buyers-how-do-they-finance-their-purchases-and-whats-changed/

The dark art of measuring residential mortgage risk

Residential mortgages are one of the seemingly more plain vanilla forms of bank lending. Notwithstanding, comparing capital requirements applied to this category of lending across different types of banks can be surprisingly complicated and is much misunderstood. I have touched on different aspects of this challenge in a number of mortgage risk weight “fact check” posts (see here and here), focussing for the most part on the comparison of “standardised” capital requirements compared to those applied to banks operating under the “internal rating based” (IRB) approach.

A discussion paper (“A more flexible and resilient capital framework for ADIs”, 8 December 2020) released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) offers a good summary (see p27 “Box 2”) of the differences in capital requirements not captured by simplistic comparisons of risk weights. However, one of the surprises in the discussion paper was that APRA chose not to address one of these differences by aligning the credit conversion factors applied to off-balance sheet (non-revolving) residential mortgage exposures.

Understanding why APRA chose to maintain a different treatment of CCFs across the two approaches offers some insights into differences in the way that the two approaches recognise and measure the underlying risks.

Before proceeding we need to include a short primer on “off-balance exposures” and “CCFs”. Feel free to skip ahead if you already understand these concepts.

Off-balance sheet exposures are the difference between the maximum amount a bank has agreed to lend and the actual amount borrowed at any point in time.
The CCF is the bank’s estimate of how much of these undrawn limits will in fact have been called on (converted to an on balance sheet exposure) in the event a borrower defaults.
In the case of “non-revolving” residential mortgages, these off-balance sheet exposures typically arise because borrowers have got ahead of (“pre-paid”) their contractual loan repayments.

APRA noted that the credit conversion factor (CCF) currently applied to off-balance sheet exposures was much higher for IRB banks than for standardised, thereby partially offsetting the lower risk weights applied under the IRB approach. It had been expected that APRA would address this inconsistency by applying a 100% CCF under both approaches.

Contrary to this expectation, APRA has proposed to revise the CCFs applying to (non-revolving) off-balance sheet residential mortgage exposures as follows:

Current

Standardised 0-50%

IRB 100%

Proposed

40%

100% (unchanged)

The interesting nuance here is that APRA is not saying that standardised banks are likely to experience a lower percentage drawdown of credit limits in the event a borrower defaults. In the “Response to Submissions” that accompanied the Discussion Paper, APRA noted that “Borrowers do not typically enter default until they have fully drawn down on their available limit, including any prepayments ahead of their scheduled balance.”

However, APRA also noted that loans with material levels of prepayment are also likely to be lower risk based on the demonstrated greater capacity to service and repay the loan.

Under the IRB approach, the greater capacity to repay the loan is generally recognised through a lower PD estimate which the IRB formula translates into lower risk weights reflecting the lower risk. In the absence of some equivalent risk recognition mechanism in the standardised approach, APRA is proposing to use a concessional CCF treatment to reflect the lower risk of loans with material levels of prepayment. It notes that the concessional CCF treatment will also contribute to ensuring the difference in residential mortgage capital requirements between the standardised and IRB approaches remains appropriate.

Summing up:

Looked at in isolation, 100% is arguably the “right” value for the CCF to apply to off-balance sheet exposures for a non-revolving residential mortgage irrespective of whether it is being measured under the standardised or IRB approach
But a “concessional” CCF is a mechanism (fudge?) that allows the standardised approach to reflect the lower risk associated with loans with material levels of prepayment

Tony – From the Outside

Low Risk Residential Mortgage Risk Weights

I have posted a number of times on the question of residential mortgage risk weights, either on the general topic of the comparison of the risk weights applied to the standardised and IRB ADIs (see here) or the reasons why risk weights for IRB ADIs can be so low (see here).

On the question of relative risk weights, I have argued that the real difference between the standardised and IRB risk weights is overstated when framed in terms of simplistic comparisons of nominal risk weights that you typically read in the news media discussion of this question. I stand by that general assessment but have conceded that I have paid insufficient attention to the disparity in risk weights at the higher quality end of the mortgage risk spectrum.

A Discussion Paper released by APRA offers a useful discussion of this low risk weight question as part of a broader set of proposals intended to improve the transparency, flexibility and resilience of the Australian capital adequacy framework.

In section 4.2.1 of the paper, APRA notes the concern raised by standardised ADIs…

A specific concern raised by standardised ADIs in prior rounds of consultation has been the difference in capital requirements for lending at low LVRs. Stakeholders have noted that the lowest risk weight under the standardised approach would be 20 per cent under the proposed framework, but this appears to be significantly lower for the IRB approach. In response to this feedback, APRA has undertaken further analysis at a more detailed level, noting the difference in capital requirements that need to be taken into account when comparing capital outcomes under the standardised and IRB approaches (see Box 2 above).

But APRA’s assessment is that the difference is not material when you look beyond the simplistic comparison of risk weights and consider the overall difference in capital requirements

APRA does not consider that there is a material capital difference between the standardised and IRB approaches at the lower LVR level. For loans with an LVR less than 60 per cent, APRA has estimated that the pricing differential that could be reasonably attributed to differences in the capital requirements between the two approaches would be lower than the differential at the average portfolio outcome.

In explaining the reasons for this conclusion, APRA addresses some misconceptions about the IRB approach to low LVR lending compared to the standardised approach

In understanding the reasons for this outcome, it is important to understand the differences in how the standardised and IRB approaches operate. In particular, there are misconceptions around the capital requirement that would apply to low LVR lending under the IRB approach. For example, it would not be appropriate to solely equate the lowest risk weight reported by IRB ADIs in market disclosures with low LVR loans. The IRB approach considers a more complex range of variable interactions compared to the standardised approach. Under the standardised approach, a low risk weight is assigned to a loan with a low LVR at origination.

One of the key points APRA makes is that IRB ADIs do not get to originate loans at the ultra low risk weights that have been the focus of much of the concern raised by standardised ADIs.

In particular, IRB estimates are more dynamic through the life of the loan, for example, they are more responsive to a change in borrower circumstances or movements in the credit cycle. Standardised risk weights generally do not change over the life of a loan. For an IRB ADI, the lowest risk weight is generally applied to loans that have significantly prepaid ahead of schedule. A low LVR loan on the standardised approach is not necessarily assigned the lowest risk weight under the IRB approach at origination.

APRA states that it is not appropriate to introduce “dynamic”factors into the standardised risk weight framework.

APRA is not proposing to include dynamic factors in determining risk weights under the standardised approach for the following reasons:
– the standardised approach is intended to be simple and aligned with Basel III. For the standardised approach, APRA considers it more appropriate to focus on origination rather than behavioural variables as this has more influence on the quality of the portfolio and leads to less procyclical capital requirements; and
– the average difference between standardised and IRB capital outcomes is much narrower at the point of origination, which is the key point for competition. While the difference between standardised and IRB capital outcomes could widen over the life of the loan, APRA has ensured that the difference in average portfolio outcomes remains appropriate

But that it does intend to introduce a 5 per cent risk weight floor into the IRB approach to act as a backstop.

That said, APRA is proposing to implement a 5 per cent risk-weight floor for residential mortgage exposures under the IRB approach, to act as a simple backstop in ensuring capital outcomes do not widen at the lower risk segment of the portfolio. This is consistent with the approach taken by other jurisdictions and will limit the difference in capital outcomes between the standardised and IRB approaches for lower risk exposures. This risk-weight floor is in addition to other factors that will reduce the difference in capital outcomes between standardised and IRB ADIs, such as the higher CCB for IRB ADIs and lower CCF estimates for standardised ADIs.

As always, it remains possible that I am missing something. The explanation offered by APRA however gives me confidence that my broad argument about the overstatement of the difference has been broadly correct. Equally importantly, the changes to residential mortgage risk weights proposed in the Discussion Paper will further reduce the gap that does exist.

Tony – From the Outside

Capital adequacy – looking past the headline ratios

Comparing capital adequacy ratios is full of traps for the unwary. I recently flagged a speech by Wayne Byres (Chairman of APRA) that indicated APRA will be releasing a package of capital adequacy changes that will be more aligned with the international minimum standards and result in higher reported capital ratios.

While waiting for this package to be released, I thought it might be useful to revisit the mechanics of the S&P Risk Adjusted Capital (RAC) ratio which is another lens under which Australian bank capital strength is viewed. In particular I want to highlight the way in which the S&P RAC ratio is influenced by S&P’s assessment of the economic risks facing banks in the countries in which the banks operate.

The simplest way to see how this works is to look at an example from 2019 when S&P announced an upgrade of the hybrid (Tier 1 and Tier 2) issues of the Australian major banks. The senior debt ratings were left unchanged but the hybrid issues were all upgraded by 1 notch. Basel III compliant Tier 2 ratings were raised to “BBB+” (from “BBB”) and Tier 1 were raised to “BBB-” (from “BB+”).

S&P explained that the upgrade was driven by a revision in S&P’s assessment of the economic risks facing the Australian banks; in particular the “orderly decline in house prices following a period of rapid growth”. As a consequence of the revised assessment of the economic risk environment,

S&P now apply lower risk weights in their capital analysis,
This in turn resulted in stronger risk-adjusted capital ratios which now exceed the 10% threshold where S&P deem capital to be “strong” as opposed to “adequate”,
Which resulted in the Stand-Alone Credit Profile (SACP) of the Australian majors improving by one-notch and hence the upgrades of the hybrids.

Looking past the happy news for the holders of major bank hybrid issues, what was interesting was how much impact the revised assessment of the economic outlook has on the S&P risk weights. The S&P assessment of the economic outlook is codified in the BICRA score (short for the Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment) which assigns a numeric value from 1 (lowest risk) to 10 (highest risk). This BICRA score in turn determines the risk weights used in the S&P Risk Adjusted Capital ratio.

As a result of S&P revising its BICRA score for Australia from 4 to 3, the risk weights are materially lower with a commensurate benefit to the S&P assessment of capital adequacy (see some selected risk weights in the table below):

BICRA	Residential Mortgages	Bank	Corporate, IPCRE, Business Lending	Credit Cards
3	30	23	75	105
4	37	33	87	118
% Change	18.9%	30.3%	13.8%	11.0%

The changes were fairly material across the board but the impact on residential mortgages (close to 20% reduction in the risk weight) is particulate noteworthy given the fact that this class of lending dominates the balance sheets of the Australian majors. It is also important to remember that, what the S&P process gives, it can also take away. This substantial improvement in the RAC ratio could very quickly reverse if S&P revised its economic outlook score or industry rating.

The other aspect of this process that is worth noting is the way in which the risk weights are anchored to S&P defined downturn scenarios and an 8% capital ratio. In the wake of the Royal Commission into Australian Banking, there has been a lot of focus on the idea of large banks being “Unquestionably Strong”. APRA subsequently determined that a 10.5% CET1 benchmark for capital strength was sufficient for a bank to be deemed to meet this test.

In that context, the S&P assessment that an 8-10% RAC ratio is “adequate” sounds a bit underwhelming. However, my understanding is the S&P risk weights are calibrated to an “A” or “substantial” stress scenario which is defined by the following Key Economic Indicators (KEI)

GDP decline of up to 6%
Unemployment of up to 15%
Stock market decline of ups to 60%

The loss rates expected in response to this level of stress are translated into equivalent risk weights using a 8% RAC ratio. The capital required by an 8% RAC ratio may only be “adequate” in S&P terms, but starts to look a lot more robust when you understand the severity of the scenario driving the risk weights that drive that requirement.

Summing up

I am not suggesting that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the S&P process, my purpose is simply to offer some observations regarding how the ratios in the capital adequacy assessment should be interpreted:

Firstly to recognise that the process is by design anchored to an 8% capital ratio and risk weights that are calibrated to a very severe (“Substantial” is the term S&P uses) stress scenario, and
Secondly, that the process is very sensitive to the BICRA score

This is not an area in which I will claim deep expertise so it is entirely possible that I am missing something. There are people who understand the S&P rating process far better than I do and I am very happy to stand corrected if I have mis-understood or mis-represented anything above.

Tony – From the Outside

APRA reflects on “… a subtle but important shift in regulatory thinking”

Wayne Byres speech to the Risk Management Association covered a range of developments but, for me, the important part was the discussion of the distinction between strength and resilience referenced in the title of this post.

This extract from the speech sets out how Mr Byres frames the distinction …

… in the post-GFC period, the emphasis of the international reforms was on strengthening the global financial system. Now, the narrative is how to improve its resilience. A perusal of APRA speeches and announcements over time shows a much greater emphasis on resilience in more recent times as well.
What is behind this shift? Put simply, it is possible to be strong, but not resilient. Your car windscreen is a great example – without doubt it is a very strong piece of glass, but one small crack and it is irreparably damaged and ultimately needs to be replaced. That is obviously not the way we want the financial system to be. We want a system that is able to absorb shocks, even from so-called “black swan” events, and have the means to restore itself to full health.
In saying that, financially strong balance sheets undoubtedly help provide resilience, and safeguarding financial strength will certainly remain the cornerstone of prudential regulation and supervision. But it is not the full story. So with that in mind, let me offer some quick reflections on the past year, and what it has revealed about opportunities for the resilience of the financial system to be further improved.
APRA Chair Wayne Byres – Speech to the 2020 Forum of the Risk Management Association – 3 December 2020

To my mind, the introduction of an increased emphasis on resilience is absolutely the right way to go. We saw some indications of the direction APRA intend to pursue in the speech that Mr Byres gave to the AFR Banking and Wealth Summit last month and will get more detail next week (hopefully) when APRA releases a consultation paper setting out a package of bank capital reforms that is likely to include a redesign of the capital buffer framework.

This package of reforms is one to watch. To the extent that it delivers on the promise of increasing the resilience of the Australian banking system, it is potentially as significant as the introduction of the “unquestionably strong” benchmark in response to the Australian Financial System Inquiry.

Tony – From the Outside

Separating deposit-taking from investment banking: new evidence on an old question

The BOE has released a paper exploring the question of how ring fencing deposit taking from investment banking impacts the banking market. I have included the abstract of the paper below and you can find a summary of the paper here on the “Bank Underground” blog. I don’t see this as the final word on these questions but it does offer a perspective worth noting.

Abstract
The idea of separating retail and investment banking remains controversial. Exploiting the introduction of UK ring-fencing requirements in 2019, we document novel implications of such separation for credit and liquidity supply, competition, and risk-taking via a funding structure channel.
By preventing conglomerates from using retail deposits to fund investment banking activities, this separation leads conglomerates to rebalance their activities towards domestic mortgage lending and away from supplying credit lines and underwriting services to large corporates.
By redirecting the benefits of deposit funding towards the retail market, this rebalancing reduces the cost of credit for households, without eroding lending standards. However the rebalancing also increases mortgage market concentration and risk-taking by smaller banks via indirect competition effects.

Tony – From the Outside