Financial opening, deposit insurance, and risk in a model of banking competition

We study the impact of competition on banks' risk-taking behavior under different assumptions about deposit insurance and the dissemination of financial information. While opening increases banks' riskiness, a risk-based deposit insurance or, alternatively, the public disclosure of financial information, are likely to mitigate this effect. Moreover, the limiting cases of uninsured but fully informed depositors, and risk-based full deposit insurance, yield the same equilibrium risk level. Although the welfare consequences of increased competition depend on its impact on risk, financial opening unambiguously improves welfare as we approach the limiting cases. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.