Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP)

Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP)
Author: Andreas Jobst
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2016-08-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1475524471

More than two years ago the European Central Bank (ECB) adopted a negative interest rate policy (NIRP) to achieve its price stability objective. Negative interest rates have so far supported easier financial conditions and contributed to a modest expansion in credit, demonstrating that the zero lower bound is less binding than previously thought. However, interest rate cuts also weigh on bank profitability. Substantial rate cuts may at some point outweigh the benefits from higher asset values and stronger aggregate demand. Further monetary accommodation may need to rely more on credit easing and an expansion of the ECB’s balance sheet rather than substantial additional reductions in the policy rate.

Negative Interest Rates

Negative Interest Rates
Author: Luís Brandão Marques
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2021-03-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513570080

This paper focuses on negative interest rate policies and covers a broad range of its effects, with a detailed discussion of findings in the academic literature and of broader country experiences.

Bank Profitability and Risk-Taking

Bank Profitability and Risk-Taking
Author: Natalya Martynova
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2015-11-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513565818

Traditional theory suggests that more profitable banks should have lower risk-taking incentives. Then why did many profitable banks choose to invest in untested financial instruments before the crisis, realizing significant losses? We attempt to reconcile theory and evidence. In our setup, banks are endowed with a fixed core business. They take risk by levering up to engage in risky ‘side activities’(such as market-based investments) alongside the core business. A more profitable core business allows a bank to borrow more and take side risks on a larger scale, offsetting lower incentives to take risk of given size. Consequently, more profitable banks may have higher risk-taking incentives. The framework is consistent with cross-sectional patterns of bank risk-taking in the run up to the recent financial crisis.

How Banks Respond to Negative Interest Rates

How Banks Respond to Negative Interest Rates
Author: Christoph Basten
Publisher:
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2018
Genre:
ISBN:

We analyze the effect of negative monetary policy rates on banks, using detailed supervisory information from Switzerland. For identification, we compare changes in the behavior of banks that had different fractions of their central bank reserves exempt from negative rates. More affected banks reduce costly reserves and bond financing while maintaining non-negative deposit rates and larger deposit ratios. Higher fee and interest income successfully compensates for squeezed liability margins, but credit and interest rate risk increase. Portfolio rebalancing implies relatively more lending, also compared to an earlier rate cut within positive territory, and risk-taking reduces regulatory capital cushions and liquidity.

Enabling Deep Negative Rates to Fight Recessions: A Guide

Enabling Deep Negative Rates to Fight Recessions: A Guide
Author: Ruchir Agarwal
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2019-04-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484398777

The experience of the Great Recession and its aftermath revealed that a lower bound on interest rates can be a serious obstacle for fighting recessions. However, the zero lower bound is not a law of nature; it is a policy choice. The central message of this paper is that with readily available tools a central bank can enable deep negative rates whenever needed—thus maintaining the power of monetary policy in the future to end recessions within a short time. This paper demonstrates that a subset of these tools can have a big effect in enabling deep negative rates with administratively small actions on the part of the central bank. To that end, we (i) survey approaches to enable deep negative rates discussed in the literature and present new approaches; (ii) establish how a subset of these approaches allows enabling negative rates while remaining at a minimum distance from the current paper currency policy and minimizing the political costs; (iii) discuss why standard transmission mechanisms from interest rates to aggregate demand are likely to remain unchanged in deep negative rate territory; and (iv) present communication tools that central banks can use both now and in the event to facilitate broader political acceptance of negative interest rate policy at the onset of the next serious recession.

Pushed Past the Limit? How Japanese Banks Reacted to Negative Interest Rates

Pushed Past the Limit? How Japanese Banks Reacted to Negative Interest Rates
Author: Mr.Gee Hee Hong
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2018-06-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484363167

In this paper, we investigate how negative interest rate policy (NIRP) introduced in January 2016 by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) affected Japanese banks' lending and risk taking behavior. The BoJ's announcement was an unexpected surprise to the market and was followed by a sharp drop in equity prices of Japanese financial firms. We exploit the cross-sectional variation in the change of share prices on the day of the announcement to measure banks' differential exposure to NIRP. We show that more exposed banks increased their credit and took on more risk compared to banks that were less exposed to negative rates.

Bank Leverage and Monetary Policy's Risk-Taking Channel

Bank Leverage and Monetary Policy's Risk-Taking Channel
Author: Mr.Giovanni Dell'Ariccia
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2013-06-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484381130

We present evidence of a risk-taking channel of monetary policy for the U.S. banking system. We use confidential data on the internal ratings of U.S. banks on loans to businesses over the period 1997 to 2011 from the Federal Reserve’s survey of terms of business lending. We find that ex-ante risk taking by banks (as measured by the risk rating of the bank’s loan portfolio) is negatively associated with increases in short-term policy interest rates. This relationship is less pronounced for banks with relatively low capital or during periods when banks’ capital erodes, such as episodes of financial and economic distress. These results contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of monetary policy in financial stability and suggest that monetary policy has a bearing on the riskiness of banks and financial stability more generally.

Negative Monetary Policy Rates and Portfolio Rebalancing: Evidence from Credit Register Data

Negative Monetary Policy Rates and Portfolio Rebalancing: Evidence from Credit Register Data
Author: Margherita Bottero
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2019-02-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498300855

We study negative interest rate policy (NIRP) exploiting ECB's NIRP introduction and administrative data from Italy, severely hit by the Eurozone crisis. NIRP has expansionary effects on credit supply-- -and hence the real economy---through a portfolio rebalancing channel. NIRP affects banks with higher ex-ante net short-term interbank positions or, more broadly, more liquid balance-sheets, not with higher retail deposits. NIRP-affected banks rebalance their portfolios from liquid assets to credit—especially to riskier and smaller firms—and cut loan rates, inducing sizable real effects. By shifting the entire yield curve downwards, NIRP differs from rate cuts just above the ZLB.

Monetary Policy with Negative Interest Rates: Decoupling Cash from Electronic Money

Monetary Policy with Negative Interest Rates: Decoupling Cash from Electronic Money
Author: Katrin Assenmacher
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 31
Release: 2018-08-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484370023

Monetary policy space remains constrained by the lower bound in many countries, limiting the policy options available to address future deflationary shocks. The existence of cash prevents central banks from cutting interest rates much below zero. In this paper, we consider the practical feasibility of recent proposals for decoupling cash from electronic money to achieve a negative yield on cash which would remove the lower bound constraint on monetary policy. We discuss how central banks could design and operate such a system, and raise some unanswered questions.

Banking in a Steady State of Low Growth and Interest Rates

Banking in a Steady State of Low Growth and Interest Rates
Author: Qianying Chen
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 37
Release: 2018-08-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484374746

A prolonged low-interest-rate environment presents a significant challenge to banks and is likely to entail major changes to their business models over the long-run. Lower returns to maturity transformation in the face of flatter yield curves and an inability to offer deposit rates significantly below zero combine to compress bank earnings in this environment. Smaller, deposit-funded, less diversified banks are hurt most, increasing consolidation pressures and reach-for-yield incentives, presenting new financial stability challenges.To the extent that such an economic environment reflects a new, steady-state with lower equilibrium growth driven by population aging and slower productivity growth, lower credit demand is likely to drive banking toward provision of fee-based, utility services.