Does Fair Value Accounting Contribute to Systemic Risk in the Banking Industry?

51 Pages Posted: 15 Jan 2009 Last revised: 6 Dec 2018

See all articles by Urooj Khan

Urooj Khan

University of Texas at Austin - Red McCombs School of Business

Date Written: September 14, 2010

Abstract

Critics have blamed fair value accounting for amplifying the subprime crisis and for causing a financial meltdown. It has been alleged that fair value accounting has created a vicious circle of falling prices, thereby increasing the overall risk in the financial system. In this paper, I investigate whether fair value accounting is associated with an increase in the risk of failure of the banking system as a whole. I find that the extent of fair value reporting is associated with an increase in contagion among banks. The increase in bank contagion is most severe during periods of market illiquidity. Further, my cross-sectional analyses suggest that increased bank contagion associated with fair value accounting is more likely to spread to banks that are poorly capitalized or have a relatively higher proportion of fair value assets and liabilities.

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting, Systemic Risk, Banking, Financial Crisis

JEL Classification: G21, M41, M44, G33

Suggested Citation

Khan, Urooj, Does Fair Value Accounting Contribute to Systemic Risk in the Banking Industry? (September 14, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1327596 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1327596

Urooj Khan (Contact Author)

University of Texas at Austin - Red McCombs School of Business ( email )

Austin, TX 78712
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Directory/Profiles/Khan-Urooj

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