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Journal of Financial Intermediation Vol. 3 No. 1 1993

The Failure of Drexel Burnham Lambert: Evidence on the Implications for Commercial Banks

Lawrence M. Benveniste1; Manoj K. Singh1; Jr., William J. Wilhelm

1 Boston College

Abstract

We argue that since bank loans and publicly traded sub-investment-grade debt, or junk bonds, are close substitutes for one another, the recent failure of Drexel Burnham Lambert created a competitive opportunity for commercial banks. Consistent with this hypothesis, we observe within the commercial banking industry a positive wealth effect associated with Drexel′s failure. The distribution of the wealth effect across commercial banks and Drexel′s investment banking rivals is consistent with the wealth effect being primarily a reflection of market expectations of a return to traditional intermediated funding of sub-investment-grade debt. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: G2, Financial Institutions and Services.

DOI
10.1006/jfin.1993.1004
Volume
3
Issue
1
Pages
104-137
Language
en
Sources
crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex

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