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1、社区银行和美国联邦储备外文翻译 毕业论文外文翻译外文题目: Community Banks and the Federal Reserve 出 处: Economic Review作 者: Thomas M. Hoenig原 文: Thank you for inviting me to participate in this conference on“Whither the Community Bank?” I applaud the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for sponsoring a conference on this important
2、topic. Coming from a Federal Reserve District that is wellserved by scores of community banks, I appreciate the opportunity to give my perspective on the role these banks play in key sectors of the economy and in the Federal Reserves mission. While I was unable to be here for the discussion yesterda
3、y, I was pleased to see from the program that you are tackling some critical issues with respect to community banking, and I look forward to an informative discussion today. My plan this morning is to talk first about the role community banks play in the U.S. economy. Then, I will turn to a more det
4、ailed discussion of how they relate to each of the Federal Reserves three missions?monetary policy, banking supervision and regulation, and the payments system. My central theme is that while community banks hold only a small share of the nations banking assets, they provide important financial serv
5、ices to some key sectors of the economy. Their importance in the economy, in turn, supports the Federal Reserves interest in and oversight of community banks. In fact, community banks play significant, though perhaps not equal, roles in each of the Federal Reserves three missions. Thus, the Federal
6、Reserve has a strong interest in understanding issues facing community banks and in helping to make possible their continued participation in the nations financial and payments systems. Role of community banks in the U.S. Economy Let me begin with a discussion of the current role of and future prosp
7、ects for community banks in the U.S. economy. My discussion is based, in part, on a study prepared by staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This study contains the details and the data that support much of what I plan to say. But rather than repeat that for you now, I will instead refer
8、you to the study itself, which also appears in this issue of Economic Review. Current role of community banks. Looking at how community banks contribute to the economy today, I would say they provide important financial services to some key sectors of the economy?services for which there are few, if
9、 any, substitutes. While they account for a relatively small share of total banking activity in the United States, they remain highly important in some types of communities and in some parts of the country. Community banks are especially important in rural communities, accounting for 58 percent of a
10、ll banking offices in rural locations and 49 percent of deposits. Although they account for a much smaller share of urban banking activity, community banks also play an important role in smaller metro areas. In metro areas with less than 1 million people, for example, community banks operate 31 perc
11、ent of all banking offices and control 23 percent of all deposits. Community banks also are more important in some Federal Reserve Districts than others. While community banks account for about a third of all banking offices in the nation as a whole, they account for half or more of all banking offi
12、ces in three Federal Reserve Districts?St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. In each of these districts, community banks also control more than 40 percent of deposits. One reason community banks are more important in these districts is that a higher percent of their population live in rural areas
13、 and small urban areas than in the nation as a whole. But demographics are not the only reason. Another factor contributing to the proliferation of community banks in these districts was the regulatory environment that, until relatively recently, restricted interstate banking in the Midwest and ther
14、eby limited the size of banks in that part of the country. Besides providing banking services in rural areas, smaller cities, and in the middle of the country, community banks also specialize in “relationship banking.” They base decisions on personal knowledge of customers creditworthiness and a kee
15、n understanding of business conditions in the communities they serve. This market niche is arguably not a focal point for large banking organizations that have come to rely heavily on hard financial information, computer models, and centralized decision-making as the basis of conducting business. Th
16、ree types of customers depend heavily on the “relationship-banking” model that community banks provide?small businesses, farmers, and depositors with low to moderate wealth. Community banks role as small business lenders is important because small businesses account for a significant share of nation
17、al output and employment. In addition, many small businesses are young and tend to grow rapidly, creating scores of net new jobs in the process. For these businesses, community banks have worked to create a comparative advantage for themselves as a source of credit. Their loan officers can take into
18、 account a variety of factors in reviewing loan applications, including the character of the borrower and special features of the local market. And because community bankers maintain close, long-term relationships with their borrowers, they can carefully monitor the borrower throughout the term of t
19、he loan. With this approach as their operating model, it is not surprising that community banks make more than their share of small business loans. By one measure, community banks accounted for 33 percent of small business loans?much larger than their share of deposits 19 percent or their share of a
20、ssets 15 percent. Furthermore, for very small business loans those under $100,000, the share of community banks was even higher, 36 percent. Community banks also provide more than their share of credit to farmers. This is not surprising given the importance of community banks in rural areas and the
21、fact that one in four rural communities depends heavily on farming for employment and income. Of the total amount of bank loans to farmers in June 2002, community banks provided 65 percent of farm real estate loans and 61 percent of all farm operating loans. The share of community banks is especiall
22、y high for small farm loans, exceeding 80 percent for farm loans under $100,000. The relationship-based services that community banks provide are not only important to small borrowers but also to many depositors. In particular, depositors of low to moderate wealth are perhaps more likely to receive
23、personal service from a community bank than they are from a large banking organization. One possible reason for this is that small banks are more heavily dependent on retail deposits for their funds than large banks. Another reason is that large banks tend to specialize in less personal, transaction
24、s-based deposit services where they have a comparative advantage over community banks because of their size and access to technology. In short, community banks are an important provider of services in those areas where relationship-based banking is important?whether its small business lending, farm
25、lending, or holding retail deposits for customers who place a premium on personal service. Outlook for community banks. What about the future though? Will community banks continue to play an important role in the banking system as technology and market conditions change? My view is that they will. A
26、lthough the number of community banks will continue to decline, they will remain an important provider of financial services for the foreseeable future. They will continue to number in the thousands. One reason to believe that community banks will remain viable is that, as a group, they continue to
27、perform well by standard performance measures such as rate of growth, rate of entry, and profitability. To be sure, profitability has declined in recent years at very small banks, but at least some of that decline appears due to the concentration of these banks in declining rural areas. Put another
28、way, the decline in profitability at very small banks since the mid-1990s may say more about the local economies in which they operate than the viability of community banking as a business model. Thus, while the number of very small community banks may dwindle, the recent record suggests that commun
29、ity banks located in more prosperous areas should thrive. What about the challenge from advances in information and communications technology? Is technological change reducing the comparative advantage of community banks in providing relationship based services? Can the increased availability of fin
30、ancial data, the growing use of credit-scoring models, the securitization of small business loans, and the proliferation of online banking threaten the future of community banks? My view is that even in the face of advancing technology, community banks will retain important advantages. For example,
31、given the high rate of new business formation, there will always be some businesses that have worthwhile investment projects but cannot pass a credit-scoring test. Many businesses are simply too new to have established credit histories, and many new business owners have too few personal assets to of
32、fer as collateral. In other areas, such as online banking, technological advances require substantial investments, and small banks have tended to lag behind their larger counterparts. Nevertheless, a good case can be made that community banks will be able to catch up over time and compete effectivel
33、y for on line customers. Community banks may be able to learn from the mistakes of larger banks. They may be able to compensate for their inability to make large-scale technology investments by partially outsourcing their data processing. They may be able to provide a greater choice of financial ser
34、vices online while continuing to provide person-to-person service through brick-and-mortar offices. And, they may be able to find innovative ways to work together to achieve greater economies of scale. Looking to the future, then, my view is that community banks will continue to have an important ro
35、le to play in providing relationship oriented services. Community banks that are well-managed, equipped with appropriate technologies, and located in viable communities should be able to hold their own against other financial services providers. Role of community banks in the Federal Reserves missio
36、n Let me turn now to the second part of my presentation?the role of community banks in the Federal Reserves mission. When Congress designed the Federal Reserve as a decentralized system, the intention was to give it a broad perspective on economic activity in all parts of the nation. Today, as in th
37、e past, this regional perspective helps the Federal Reserve carry out its mission. Because community banks play key roles in some regions and in some sectors of the economy, they are a part of the Federal Reserves broad perspective. Their activities provide insight regarding the state of the economy
38、 and this insight contributes to the Federal Reserves overarching mission of maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability. To be more concrete, I would suggest that community banks play a role in each of the Federal Reserves three missions?monetary policy, banking supervision and regulation, an
39、d the payments system. The importance of community banks varies across these missions, as does the nature of community banks interaction with the Federal Reserve in these areas. But in all cases, community banks play a role. Monetary policy. In the area of monetary policy, community banks?like all b
40、anks?help transmit policy actions to the economy. One channel through which monetary policy works is the capital markets?tighter monetary policy raises interest rates, making it more expensive for businesses to finance new spending by selling bonds or issuing commercial paper. But monetary policy al
41、so can affect spending through the banking system. When the Federal Reserve boosts short term interest rates by raising the federal funds rate, banks find it harder to attract deposits, their main source of funds for making loans. Moreover, when market interest rates go up, banks find it more expens
42、ive to borrow nondeposit funds on the capital markets, thereby reducing their incentive to make loans. Banks typically respond by tightening their credit standards or raising their loan rates, causing many businesses to scale back operations. Community banks potentially play a special role in this p
43、rocess because of their importance as a source of credit to small businesses. Because small firms have less direct access than large firms to capital markets, they are more likely to cut spending when bank loans become more difficult or expensive to obtain. Consistent with this view, some empirical
44、evidence suggests that small businesses bear the brunt of monetary policy, accounting for a disproportionate share of the decline in economic activity following a tightening of policy. A second reason community banks play a special role in the transmission of monetary policy is that changes in monet
45、ary policy tend to have a much bigger impact on their lending than on the lending of large banks. This tendency has been confirmed by careful empirical studies of the response of bank lending to changes in monetary policy.The most likely explanation is that small banks are more dependent than large
46、banks on deposits as their source of funds for making loans. When tighter monetary policy raises market rates and makes it harder for banks to attract deposits, small banks cannot so easily make up the shortfall of funds by borrowing on the capital markets?either they cannot borrow at all, or they m
47、ust borrow at high rates because investors lack information about small banks financial condition. It is important to emphasize that community banks would play a special role in the transmission process even if they found new ways to access nondeposit funds. Moreover, I support community banks effor
48、ts to address their funding problems, assuming they remain mindful of possible “moral hazard” issues and they manage any related increase in risk. But even if community banks do become less dependent on deposits, monetary policy will still influence their lending to small businesses through changes
49、in the cost of funds and the supply of deposits. As a result, it is essential for the Federal Reserve to continue monitoring the health of community banks and their lending and funding practices. Banking supervision and regulation. In the area of banking supervision and regulation, the Federal Reserve is charged by Congress with the responsibility of supervising state chartered banks that have joined the Federal Reserve System
