We shed light on the narrative that listing contributes to risk-taking by examining the risk characteristics of listed BHCs, small enough to be private, against a sample of comparable private BHCs, large enough to be listed, over the 1987–2019 period. We measure our proxies for risk characteristics over different intervals in the sample period to account for the effect of new regulations and variation in the intensity of information production by regulators, markets, and financial firms. We document that listed banks are riskier than private banks over the 22-year sample period. Examining the subperiods, we find that listed banks are riskier than private banks before the crisis, but they may not be as risky following the crisis. While risk increases for all banks during the crisis, the increase in risk for listed banks during the crisis is greater than that for private banks. Our findings are both statistically and economically significant and suggest that financial reforms and regulatory expectations facing banks post-crisis might have contributed to the risk reduction for listed banks relative to private banks.

Bank capital requirements reduce the probability of bank failure and help mitigate taxpayers’ sharing in the losses that result from bank failures. Under Basel III, direct capital requirements are supplemented with liquidity requirements. Our results suggest that liquidity provisions of banks are connected to bank capital and that changes in liquidity indirectly affect the capital structure of financial institutions. Liquidity appears to be another instrument for adjusting bank capital structure beyond just capital requirements. Consistent with Diamond and Rajan (2005), we find that liquidity and capital should be considered jointly for promoting financial stability.

A majority of U.S. banks between 1973 and 2012 held equity capital significantly beyond the required minimum. We study the risk-return tradeoff in connection with a bank’s capital structure, and identify several new significant market factors that drive the level of equity capital in banks. During normal growth periods, bank leverage is negatively related to a level of competition and loan portfolio diversification, while high bank leverage is associated with low past liquidity. During recessions and expansions, the roles of those factors change following distortions in risk-return tradeoff. In distress, when banks approach regulatory capital requirements, market determinants of book leverage lose their significance; however, leverage does not decrease until a bank is within 1% of the minimal capital threshold.