Why does the FDIC sue?
Christoffer Koch and
Ken Okamura
Journal of Corporate Finance, 2019, vol. 59, issue C, 255-275
Abstract:
Cases the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) pursues against the directors and officers of failed commercial banks for (gross) negligence are important for the corporate governance of U.S. commercial banks. These cases shape the kernel of bank corporate governance, as they guide expectations of bankers and regulators in defining the limits of unacceptable behaviour under financial distress, such as risk shifting. We examine the differences in behaviour of all 408 U.S. commercial banks that were taken into receivership between 2007 and 2012. Sued banks had different balance sheet dynamics relative to those who are not sued in the three years prior to failure. These banks were generally larger, faster growing, obtained riskier funding and tended to underprovision. We find evidence that boards of failing banks respond to litigation by reducing the use of riskier funding in an out-of-sample set of banks. Our results suggest the FDIC does set corporate governance standards for all banks by suing negligent directors and officers.
Keywords: Litigation; Corporate governance; Bank failures; Financial ratios (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G28 G33 G34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)
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Working Paper: Why does the FDIC sue? (2016) 
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:corfin:v:59:y:2019:i:c:p:255-275
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.06.009
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