Optimal business model for financial institutions under post-crisis regulatory environment

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform regulations and other postcrisis regulations and guidelines have put enormous pressure on financial institutions to optimize the use of their scarce capital and to improve their return on equity (ROE) which has been significantly compressed compared to historical levels. Regulators have begun scrutinizing questionable actions and structures that are intended to mitigate capital restrictions and enhance ROE. Our article presents an alternative – a systematic and quantitative, yet flexible, methodology for banks to optimize their business models, maximize ROE, and right-size different businesses given capital constraints and strategic objectives. We use real data to demonstrate the application and validity of the approach, to derive certain conclusions regarding the optimal leverage (i.e., safe level of loan-to-capital ratios for banks), and to suggest other relevant applications.