Economic Rationale of Compensating Balance Requirements and Its Impact on Money Supply

「꺾기」의 경제학(經濟學)과 통화량(通貨量) 효과분석(效果分析)

This paper purports to analyze the economic rationale of compensating balance requirements and its impact on money supply. This practice has recently been severely criticized for artificially increasing the money supply and, therefore, limiting the nation's aggregate lending policy under the tight constraint of the given money supply target. A review of the existing literature implies that compensating balance requirements is a banking practice which leads to corrections in the distortion of financial resource allocation due to the imperfection of financial market stemming from asymmetric information and/or financial regulations on deposit and lending rates. Therefore, the economic rationale of this practice is deemed to improve the efficiency of financial resource allocation. On the other hand, the macroeconomic impact of compensating balance requirements on the money supply depends on the impact on the money multiplier, which in turn depends on the desired ratio of deposit that people wish to maintain on the money borrowed from the banking system, and on the desired reserve ratio that the banking system would like to hold for deposit withdrawal. If the compensating balance requirements could increase the desired ratio of deposit to borrowing (bank lending), it will increase the available amount of total reserve within the banking system and, in turn, the money multiplier. However, this channel has not been fully analyzed in the literature, and the direction of the effect is ambiguous. If the practice could reduce the turn-over rate of deposit and, thereby, reduce the desired reserve ratio of the banking system, then it will also increase the money multiplier. While this channel operates unambiguously toward increasing the money multiplier, this effect will be limited by the extent that the banking system holds the excess reserve over the required reserve because the excess reserve will set the maximum amount for the desired reserve to fall. This paper tries to determine the effect on the money supply by empirically estimating the multiplier and the desired ratio of deposit to lending equations as functions of the ratio of compensating balance to the related lending, which is not observable and is estimated for the regression purpose. The results suggest that the effect of compensating balance requirements on the money supply in Korea does not exist or is very tenuous even if it could operate. Therefore, this paper concludes that the well publicized policy of cross cancelling the compensating balance and the related lending will not be effective at controlling the money supply and increasing the amount of loans without expanding the money supply.

본고(本稿)는 최근 논란이 되고 있는 금융기관(金融機關)들의 꺾기관행의 의의와 꺾기의 통화량효과(通貨量效果)를 분석함으로써 예대상계(預貸相計)를 통한 정부(政府)의 꺾기규제정책의 효과를 규명해 보고자 하는 데 그 목적이 있다. 꺾기란 여신(與信)(대출(貸出))에 대응해서 일정한 금액의 수신(受信)(예금(預金))을 요구하는 금융관행을 통칭하는데, 기존 문헌에 의하면 이윤극대화(利潤極大化)를 추구하는 금융기관이 정보(情報)의 비대칭성이나 예금(預金) 및 대출금리규제(貸出金利規制)와 같은 금융규제(金融規制) 등에 따른 금융시장의 불완전성을 극복하기 위해 도입하는 관행으로서 궁극적으로는 금융자원배분(金融資源配分)의 왜곡을 시정하는 데 기여하게 된다. 한편 꺾기의 통화량효과(通貨量效果)는 꺾기가 일국(一國)의 통화승수(通貨乘數)에 미치는 효과에 의존하게 되는데, 꺾기의 통화승수효과(通貨乘數效果)는 총대출 중 예금으로 회귀하는 적정예금회귀율(滴定預金回歸率)과 은행(銀行)들의 적정예금지급준비율(滴定預金支給準備率)에 미치는 꺾기의 효과에 의존하게 된다. 이론적으로 이들 효과의 방향은 불분명한데 실증분석결과에 의하면 우리나라의 경우 꺾기의 통화량효과(通貨量效果)는 유의성(有意性)이 없는 것으로 나타나고 있다. 따라서 이에 의하면 꺾기가 인위적으로 통화량(通貨量)을 증가시킬 것이라는 통념은 지지되지 않고 있을 뿐만 아니라, 예대상계정책(預貸相計政策)을 통해 통화량(通貨量)을 감소시킴으로써 여유대출자금(餘裕貸出資金)을 창출할 수 있을 것이라는 기대가 실현되기도 어렵다 할 것이다. 이에 따라 앞으로 예대상계(預貸相計)를 통화량관리(通貨量管理)의 방편으로 이용하고자 하거나 이를 통해 대출여유자금(貸出餘裕資金)을 창출하고자 하는 정책의 추진은 대단히 신중을 기하는 것이 바람직하다 할 것이다.