Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

The Impact Of Non Interest Income On Bank Risk In Australia, Barry Williams

Barry Williams

This paper considers the relationship between bank revenue composition and bank risk in Australia, using data drawn from Australian bank confidential regulatory returns. It is found that those banks with lower levels of non interest income and higher revenue concentration are less risky, contrary to mean-variance portfolio theory but consistent with previous international evidence. Decreasing returns to scale in bank risk is found, with results suggesting that the major Australian banks have reached the scale point where size is risk increasing. Non interest income is found to be risk increasing, but some evidence is found that trading and investment income …