Most banks no longer set their loan loss reserves
at some fixed percentage of total loans as was
customary until the early 1980s. Owing to (1) the
elimination of most of the tax incentive to maintain
excess loan loss reserves, (2) to regulators’ abandonment
of a fixed target reserve to loans ratio, (3) to
the diminished role of reserves in regulatory capital
measures, and (4) to regulatory pressure to use loan
loss analysis in reserve determination, the reserve is
now more likely to measure potential loan losses than
in the past. Nevertheless, the desire to smooth
reported profits, to lower taxes, and to limit the
expenses of estimating future loan losses continues
to provide an incentive for banks to hold reserves
at levels that differ from their best estimates of the
losses inherent in their loan portfolios.