Capital planning plays a key role in banks’ business decisions. The cost of equity financing and return targets on shareholders’ funds shape banks’ capital allocation and product pricing. Given the importance of equity capital in absorbing losses, prudential regulators require banks to hold sufficient equity to cover risks. Regulation that motivates banks to raise equity financing when capital is cheap would promote the interests of long-term shareholders. All these considerations call for a better understanding of what drives the cost of bank capital. One way to gauge this cost of equity is to analyse expected stock returns. .
