Book excerpt: This book criticizes the fact that profitability measures derived from capital market models such as the Sharpe ratio and the reward-to-VaR ratio are proposed for loan portfolios, although it is not proven whether their risk-return trade-offs are optimal for banks. The authors demonstrate that even the reward-to-VaR ratio, which is developed for valuating loan portfolios, can be highly misleading. They also show how market discipline, capital requirements, and insured deposits affect decision-making.