[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/upafin/13-06.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Did Financial Institutions sell RMBS at Fire Sale Prices during the Finacial Crisis?

Author

Listed:
  • Merrill, Craig B.

    (Brigham Young University)

  • Nadauld, Taylor D.

    (Brigham Young University)

  • Stulz, Rene M.

    (Ohio State University)

  • Sherlund, Shane M.

    (The Federal Reserve, Washington, D.C.)

Abstract
Much attention has been paid to the large decreases in value of non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) during the financial crisis. Many observers have argued that the fall in prices was partly caused by fire sales. We use capital requirements and accounting rules to identify circumstances where financial institutions had incentives to engage in fire sales and then examine whether such sales occurred. For financial institutions subject to credit-sensitive capital requirements, capital requirements increase as an asset's credit becomes impaired. When accounting rules require such an asset's value to be marked-to-market and the fair value loss to be recognized in earnings, a capital-constrained firm can improve its capital position by selling the credit-impaired asset even if it has to accept a liquidity discount to do so. In contrast, a financial firm whose fair value losses are not recognized in earnings for the purpose of calculating capital requirements is more likely to satisfy capital requirements by selling liquid assets whose value has not fallen and hence would be unlikely to engage in fire sales. Using a sample of 5,000 repeat transactions of non-agency RMBS by insurance companies from 2006 to 2009, we show that insurance companies that became more capital-constrained because of operating losses (uncorrelated with RMBS credit quality) and also recognized fair value losses sold comparable RMBS at much lower prices than other insurance companies during the crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Merrill, Craig B. & Nadauld, Taylor D. & Stulz, Rene M. & Sherlund, Shane M., 2012. "Why Did Financial Institutions sell RMBS at Fire Sale Prices during the Finacial Crisis?," Working Papers 13-06, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, Weiss Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:upafin:13-06
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://fic.wharton.upenn.edu/fic/papers/13/13-06.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2009. "Market Liquidity and Funding Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2201-2238, June.
    2. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1992. "Liquidation Values and Debt Capacity: A Market Equilibrium Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1343-1366, September.
    3. Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 2011. "Fire Sales in Finance and Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 29-48, Winter.
    4. Andrew Ellul & Chotibhak Jotikasthira & Christian T. Lundblad & Yihui Wang, 2012. "Is Historical Cost Accounting a Panacea? Market Stress, Incentive Distortions, and Gains Trading," FMG Discussion Papers dp701, Financial Markets Group.
    5. Christian Laux & Christian Leuz, 2010. "Did Fair-Value Accounting Contribute to the Financial Crisis?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 93-118, Winter.
    6. Markus K. Brunnermeier, 2009. "Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007-2008," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 77-100, Winter.
    7. Gorton, Gary & Metrick, Andrew, 2012. "Securitized banking and the run on repo," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 425-451.
    8. Anthony Pennington‐Cross & Giang Ho, 2010. "The Termination of Subprime Hybrid and Fixed‐Rate Mortgages," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 399-426, September.
    9. Christian Laux, 2012. "Financial instruments, financial reporting, and financial stability," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 239-260, August.
    10. Nicole Boyson & Jean Helwege & Jan Jindra, 2014. "Crises, Liquidity Shocks, and Fire Sales at Commercial Banks," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(4), pages 857-884, December.
    11. Heaton, John C. & Lucas, Deborah & McDonald, Robert L., 2010. "Is mark-to-market accounting destabilizing? Analysis and implications for policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 64-75, January.
    12. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:3:p:939-978 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brian Begalle & Antoine Martin & James McAndrews & Susan McLaughlin, 2016. "The Risk Of Fire Sales In The Tri-Party Repo Market," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(3), pages 513-530, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Craig B. Merrill & Taylor D. Nadauld & René M. Stulz & Shane Sherlund, 2012. "Did Capital Requirements and Fair Value Accounting Spark Fire Sales in Distressed Mortgage-Backed Securities?," NBER Working Papers 18270, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Merrill, Craig B. & Nadauld, Taylor D. & Stulz, René M. & Sherlun, Shane M., 2021. "Were there fire sales in the RMBS market?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 17-37.
    3. Ellul, Andrew & Jotikasthira, Chotibhak & Lundblad, Christian T. & Wang, Yihui, 2013. "Mark-to-market accounting and systemic risk: evidence from the insurance industry," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60968, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Podlich, Natalia & Schnabel, Isabel & Tischer, Johannes, 2017. "Banks' trading after the Lehman crisis: The role of unconventional monetary policy," Discussion Papers 19/2017, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    5. Greenwood, Robin & Landier, Augustin & Thesmar, David, 2015. "Vulnerable banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 471-485.
    6. Woon Sau Leung & Nicholas Taylor, 2013. "Testing for contagion: the impact of US structured markets on international financial markets," Chapters, in: Adrian R. Bell & Chris Brooks & Marcel Prokopczuk (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Empirical Finance, chapter 11, pages 256-284, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Nicole Boyson & Jean Helwege & Jan Jindra, 2014. "Crises, Liquidity Shocks, and Fire Sales at Commercial Banks," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(4), pages 857-884, December.
    8. Jobst, Andreas A., 2014. "Measuring systemic risk-adjusted liquidity (SRL)—A model approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 270-287.
    9. Michael Woodford, 2016. "Quantitative easing and financial stability," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 19(2), pages 04-77, August.
    10. Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 2011. "Fire Sales in Finance and Macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 29-48, Winter.
    11. Abbassi, Puriya & Iyer, Rajkamal & Peydró, José-Luis & Tous, Francesc R., 2016. "Securities trading by banks and credit supply: Micro-evidence from the crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 569-594.
    12. Apergis, Emmanuel & Apergis, Iraklis & Apergis, Nicholas, 2019. "A new macro stress testing approach for financial realignment in the Eurozone," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 52-80.
    13. Spiros Bougheas & Adam Hal Spencer, 2022. "Fire sales and ex ante valuation of systemic risk: A financial equilibrium networks approach," Discussion Papers 2022/04, University of Nottingham, Centre for Finance, Credit and Macroeconomics (CFCM).
    14. Markus Brunnermeier & Simon Rother & Isabel Schnabel & Itay Goldstein, 2020. "Asset Price Bubbles and Systemic Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(9), pages 4272-4317.
    15. Luck, Stephan & Schempp, Paul, 2014. "Banks, shadow banking, and fragility," Working Paper Series 1726, European Central Bank.
    16. Iyer, Rajkamal & Peydró, José-Luis & Abbassi, Puriya & Tous, Francesc, 2015. "Securities Trading by Banks and Credit Supply: Micro-Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 10480, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 2013. "A Model of Shadow Banking," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1331-1363, August.
    18. Spiros Bougheas & David I. Harvey & Alan Kirman & Douglas Nelson & Alan P. Kirman & Douglas R. Nelson, 2024. "Systemic Risk in Banking, Fire Sales, and Macroeconomic Disasters," CESifo Working Paper Series 10991, CESifo.
    19. Michiel Bijlsma & Andrei Dubovik & Gijsbert Zwart, 2012. "Inside Liquidity in Competitive Markets," CPB Discussion Paper 209.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    20. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 2010. "Unstable banking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 306-318, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecl:upafin:13-06. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wcupaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.