Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
1. What are the principal accounts that appear on a bank's balance sheet
(Report of Condition)?: The principal asset items on a bank's Report of Condition
are loans, investments in marketable securities, cash, and miscellaneous assets.
The principal liability items are deposits and nondeposit borrowings in the money
market. Equity capital supplied by the stockholders rounds out the total sources of
funds for a bank.
2. Which accounts are most important and which are least important on the
asset side of a bank's balance sheet?: The principal bank asset items from most
important to least important are:
1Cash
2Investment Securities
3Loans
4 Miscellaneous Assets
3. What accounts are most important on the liability side of a balance sheet?-
: 1 Deposits
2 Non-deposit Borrowings
3 Equity Capital
4 Miscellaneous Liabilities
4. What are the essential differences among demand deposits, savings de-
posits, and time deposits?: Demand deposits are regular checking accounts
against which a customer can write checks or make any number of personal
withdrawals. Regular checking accounts do not bear interest under current U.S.
law and regulation. Savings deposits bear interest (normally, they carry the lowest
rate paid on bank deposits) but may be withdrawn at will (though a bank usually
will reserve the right to require advance notice of a planned withdrawal). Time
deposits carry a fixed maturity and the bank may impose a penalty if the customer
withdraws funds before the maturity date is reached. The interest rate posted on
time deposits is negotiated between the bank and its deposit customer and may
be either fixed or floating. A NOW account combines features of a savings account
and a checking account, while a money market deposit account encompasses
transactional powers similar to a regular checking account (though usually with
limitations on the number of checks or drafts that may be written against the
account) but also resembles a time deposit with an interest rate fixed for a brief
period (such as weekly) but then becomes changeable over longer periods to
reflect current market conditions.
5. What are primary reserves, and secondary reserves and what are they
supposed to do?: Primary reserves consist of cash, including a bank's vault cash
and checkable deposits held with other banks or any other funds such as reserves
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with the Federal Reserve that are accessible immediately to meet demands for
liquidity made against the bank.
Secondary reserves consist of assets that pay some interest (though usually pay
returns that are much lower than earned on other assets, such as loans) but their
principal feature is ready marketability. Most Secondary reserves are marketable
securities such as short term government securities and private securities such as
commercial paper.
Both primary and secondary reserves are held to keep the bank in readiness to
meet demands for cash (liquidity) from whatever source those demands may arise.
6. Suppose that a bank holds cash in its vault of $1.4 million, short-term
government securities of $12.4 million, privately issued money market in-
struments of $5.2 million, deposits at the Federal Reserve banks of $20.1
million, cash items in the process of collection of $0.6 million, and deposits
placed with other banks of $16.4 million. How much in primary reserves does
this bank hold? In secondary reserves?: The bank holds primary reserves of:
Vault Cash + Deposits at the Fed + Cash Items in Collection + Deposits With Other
Banks
= $38.5 million
= $17.6 million
7. What are off-balance-sheet items and why are they important to some
financial firms?: Off-balance-sheet items are usually transactions that generate
fee income for a bank (such as standby credit guarantees) or help hedge against
risk (such as financial futures contracts). They are important as a supplement to
income from loans and to help a bank reduce its exposure to interest-rate and
other types of risk.
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8. Why are bank accounting practices under attack right now? In what ways
could financial institutions improve their accounting methods?: The tradition-
al practice of banks has been to record the value of assets and liabilities at their
value on the day the accounts were originally created and not change those values
over the life of the account. The SEC and FASB started questioning this practice in
the 1980's because they were concerned that investors in bank securities would
be misled about the true value of the bank. Using this historical value accounting
method may in fact conceal a bank that insolvent in a current market value sense.
The biggest controversy centered on the banks' investment portfolio which would
appear to be easy to value at its current market price. At a minimum, banks could
help themselves by marking their investment portfolio to market. This would give
investors an indication of the true value of the bank's investment portfolio. Banks
could also consider using the lower of historical or market value for other accounts
on the balance sheet.
9. What accounts make up the Report of Income (income statement of a
bank)?: The Report of Income includes all sources of bank revenue (loan income,
investment security income, revenue from deposit service fees, trust fees, and
miscellaneous service income) and all bank expenses (including interest on all
borrowed funds, salaries, wages, and employee benefits, overhead costs, loan
loss expense, taxes, and miscellaneous operating costs.) The difference between
operating revenues and expenses (including tax obligations) is referred to as net
income.
10. In rank order, what are the most important revenue and expense items on
a Report of Income?: By dollar volume in most recent years the rank order of the
revenue and expense items on a bank's Report of Income is:
The allowance for loan losses is built up gradually over time by an annual noncash
expense item that is charged against the bank's current income, known as the
Provision for Loan Losses. The dollar amount of the annual loan-loss provision
plus the amount of recovered funds from any loans previously declared worthless
(charged off) less any loans charged off as worthless in the current period is added
to the allowance-for-loan-losses account.
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14. How do the financial statements of major nonbank financial firms resem-
ble or differ from bank financial statements? Why do these differences or
similarities exist?: Banks have very similar financial statements to credit union
and savings associations. The only difference may be in the structure of their
loan portfolio. Credit unions probably have more loans to individuals and savings
associations may have more real estate loans as well as loans to individuals.
More differences exist between banks and other major competitors. These dif-
ferences exist because of each company's unique function. Finance companies
have loans but on their balance sheet they are called accounts receivables.
In addition, they show heavy reliance on money market borrowings instead of
deposits. Insurance companies are different in that loans they make to businesses
show up on the balance sheet as bonds, stocks, mortgages and other securities.
On the liability side, insurance companies receive the majority of their funds from
insurance premiums paid by customers for insurance protection.
Mutual funds hold primarily corporate stocks, bonds, asset-backed securities and
money market instruments and their liabilities consist primarily of units of the
mutual fund sold to the public. Security brokers and dealers tend to hold a similar
range of securities funded by borrowings in the money and capital markets.
15. What major trends are changing the content of the financial statements
prepared by financial firms?: The content of the financial statements of financial
firms is changing for several reasons. One trend that has affected the financial
statements of financial firms is the call for those statements to reflect the true
market value of the assets held by the financial firm. More accounts are being
listed at the lower of historical or market value so that investors can get a better
understanding of the true value of the firm.
Another trend that is affecting financial firms is the increased use of off-balance
sheet items. The notional amount of these items is sometimes surpassing the value
of the items on the balance sheet, especially for larger financial institutions. This
has led regulators to change their reporting requirements for financial firms and
there are likely to be additional requirements in the future.
Another trend that is affecting financial firms is the convergence of the various
types of financial firms. In addition, financial firms are becoming larger and more
complex and more financial holding companies are formed. These are also leading
to changes in the content and structure of the financial statements of financial
firms.
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16. What are the key features or characteristics of the financial statements
of banks and similar financial firms? What are the consequences of these
statement features for managers of financial-service providers and for the
public?: The financial statements of financial-service firms exhibit three main
characteristics that have important consequences for managers of these firms and
the public.
The first characteristic of these firms is that they have lower operating leverage.
They have small amounts of buildings, equipment and other fixed assets. Operating
leverage adds risk to the firm and firms with large amount of operating leverage
can face large fluctuations in net income and earnings per share for small changes
in revenues.
Financial-service firms do not have this problem. However, financial service firms
have large amounts of financial leverage. Financial leverage comes from how the
firm finances their assets. If a firm borrows a lot, they face have larger financial
leverage and have a larger amount of risk as a result. Financial service firms
finance approximately 90% of their assets with debt and therefore face significant
financial leverage.
Small changes in revenues can lead to large changes in net income and earnings
per share as a result. In addition, changes in interest rates can have significant
effects on the net income and capital position of financial firms. Finally, most of the
liabilities of financial firms are short term. This means that financial firms can face
significant liquidity problems. A sudden demand by depositors for funds can lead
to large problems for financial firms.
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