"Mitigating Deregulation: The Role of Supervision", by E. Carletti, F. De Marco, A. Manconi, I. Wolfskeil, accepted at AFA 2027 Annual Meeting
Elena Carletti, Filippo De Marco, Alberto Manconi and Isabella Wolfskeil
We study how regulation and supervision interact. Exploiting the 2018-2019 relaxation of liquidity requirements for US mid-sized banks, we show that affected banks experienced a deterioration in liquidity. At the same time, using confidential data from the Federal Reserve on supervisory hours, we document that these banks were subject to an increase in supervisory examination activity. The increase in supervisory intensity mitigates the deterioration in liquidity. These effects are stronger in districts where supervisors oversee fewer banks and have longer tenure. Preliminary evidence also suggests that deregulated banks expand lending, without a corresponding increase in other measures of risk. These findings suggest that supervision can partially substitute for regulatory discipline and highlight the importance of supervisory capacity for financial stability.