An Analysis of the Potential Impact of Heightened Capital Requirements on Banks’ Cost of Capital

Critics of recent regulation to increase minimum bank capital requirements contend that this policy will increase the cost of doing business for banks. We investigate the potential impact of heightened capital requirements on banks' cost of capital. In the cross-section, banks' cost of equity, measured by the implied cost of capital (ICC), and banks' cost of debt decline when equity capital increases. The negative association between capital and banks' ICC is stronger after the onset of the financial crisis, consistent with prior work suggesting that equity is more valuable during periods of financial distress. The negative association between capital and banks' cost of equity and debt, compensates for the difference in the costs of these sources of financing. As a consequence, the overall cost of capital remains unaltered when capital increases. Thus, our findings do not offer support the claim that additional equity has a negative impact on credit because equity increases banks' cost of capital. An exception to these findings is found in the sample of large banks. There is no discernible association between capital and the costs of equity and debt of large banks and their WACC increases when they substitute debt with more expensive equity