Estimating the cost of deposit insurance for a commercial bank following an optimal investment strategy

Abstract

Commercial banks play a dominant role in facilitating the economic growth of a country by acting as an intermediary between the de cit spending unit (borrowers) and the surplus spending unit (lenders). In particular, they transform short-term deposits into medium and long-term loans. Due to their important role in the economy and the nancial system as a whole, commercial banks are subject to high regulation standards in most countries. According to an international set of capital standards known as the Basel Accords, banks are required to hold a minimum level of capital as a bu er to protect their depositors and the nancial market in an event of severe unexpected losses caused by nancial risk. Moreover, government regulators aim to maintain public con dence and trust in the banking system through the use of a deposit insurance scheme (DIS). Deposit insurance (DI) has the e ect of eliminating mass withdrawals of deposits in an event of a bank failure. However, DI comes at a cost. The insuring agent is tasked with estimating a fairly priced premium that the bank should be charged for DI.