小银行的合规成本负担相对更重吗?——基于银行合规成本规模经济效应的解释

Does Small Banks Pay Relatively Heavier Compliance Cost Burden?——Explanation from Scale Economies Effect of Bank Compliance Cost

选取中国91家银行2011~2020年的数据,采用计量法估算银行平均合规成本,研究发现:银行平均合规成本约占非利息支出的14.4%,按资产规模分类,小型银行这一比重为19.2%,中型银行为4.1%,大型银行为9.6%;按传统类型分类,农商行和城商行的这一比重高于股份制银行和大型国有银行;银行资产规模与合规成本呈U型关系,使银行合规成本最低的最小有效规模约为2.6万亿元,规模低于此阈值的小银行在合规成本上存在规模经济效应,小银行合规成本负担相对更重,进而产生小银行因“太小而不能成功”的问题。据此,应实施差异化监管政策,科学合理制定银行监管分层划分标准,允许小银行通过合并等方式进行整合,降低其合规成本。

This paper estimates average compliance cost by using data of 91 China’s banks from 2011 to 2020, verifies compliance cost has scale economies effect and small banks’ compliance cost is heavier. The results show that average compliance cost accounts for about 14.4% of the non-interest expense. According to the classification of total assets, the small banks is 19.2%, the medium-sized banks is 4.1%, and the large banks is 9.6%. According to the traditional classification, the rural and urban commercial banks is also higher than other banks. There is U-shaped relationship between bank size and compliance cost, the most effective size that minimize bank’s compliance cost is about 2.6 trillion yuan, banks with size lower than this threshold have scale economies effect on compliance cost, thus leads to heavier compliance cost and the problem of “too small to succeed”. So we should implement differentiated supervision policies, formulate the division standards of banking supervision stratification scientifically, and allow small banks to integrate in order to reduce compliance cost.