数字化转型如何赋能商业银行风险管理——兼论数字赋能质效的“马太效应”

How Digital Transformation Enables Commercial Banks to Manage Risks——An Introduction to the"Matthew Effect"on the Quality of Digital Enhancement

本文构建中国商业银行数字化转型指数,借助2014—2020年204家商业银行的年度非平衡面板数据,研究数字化转型对商业银行风险管理的赋能作用及其机制,并进一步探讨数字赋能商业银行风险管理的结构性差异。结果表明:数字化转型有助于商业银行增强风险管理能力,从数字化转型结构看,商业银行在战略、组织、客户、产品、技术方面的数字化变革均有助于增强风险管理能力,且该结论在一系列稳健性和内生性检验下均保持稳健。机制分析发现,数字化转型主要通过增强商业银行风险识别、分散、缓冲能力以及提升商业银行风险管理效率的渠道,对商业银行风险管理产生赋能作用。进一步研究发现,数字化转型对商业银行风险管理的赋能质效在不同规模商业银行中存在“马太效应”,大型商业银行能够借助数字技术有效增强自身风险识别、分散、缓冲能力和提高风险管理效率;而对于广大中小型商业银行,数字化转型对风险管理的赋能作用并不显著,转型潜力未得到充分释放,这提醒我们需重点关注数字赋能质效的结构性差异。

This paper constructs a digital transformation index for Chinese commercial banks,and with the help of annual unbalanced panel data of 204 commercial banks from 2014 to 2020,examines the enabling role of digital transformation on commercial banks'risk management and its mechanism,and further explores the structural differenc-es of digitally-enabled commercial banks'risk management.The results show that digital transformation helps commer-cial banks to enhance their risk management capabilities,in terms of the structure of digital transformation,and that digital changes in strategy,organization,customers,products,and technology all help commercial banks to enhance their risk management capabilities,and the findings remain robust under a series of robustness and endogeneity tests.Mechanism analysis finds that digital transformation has an enabling effect on commercial bank risk management main-ly through channels that enhance commercial bank risk identification,diversification,and buffering capabilities as well as improve commercial bank risk management efficiency.Further research finds that the enabling effect of digital transformation on commercial banks'risk management has a"Matthew effect"among commercial banks of different siz-es,with large commercial banks being able to use digital technology to effectively enhance their own risk identifica-tion,diversification,buffer capacity and improve risk management efficiency;while for the majority of small and medium-sized commercial banks,digital transformation does not have a significant enabling effect on risk manage-ment,and the potential for transformation has not been fully released,which reminds us that we need to pay attention to the structural differences in the quality of digital empowerment.