Financial Markets, Institutions and Instruments最新文献

This paper examines for the first time the impact of problem loans on Japanese productivity growth. We exploit a new data set of Japanese problem loans classified into two categories: bankrupt and restructured loans. We opt for a novel and flexible productivity growth decomposition that allows to measure the direct impact of these problem loans on productivity growth. The results reveal that Japanese bank productivity growth was severely constrained by bankrupt and restructured loans early in 2000s, whilst some persistence of the negative impact of problem loans on productivity growth is observed in the late 2000s. Thereafter, there is only some partial recovery in the productivity growth from 2012 to 2015. Further, we also perform cluster analysis to examine convergence or divergence across regions and over time. We observe limited convergence, though Regional Banks seem to form clusters in some regions.

We examine the effect of annual report textual complexity on firms’ stock liquidity. Using techniques from computational linguistics, we predict and find that less readable filings are associated with lower stock liquidity. Our study provides evidence that difficult-to-read annual reports hinder investors’ ability to process and analyze information contained in corporate annual reports, reducing thereby their willingness to trade which decreases stock liquidity. Our findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity tests, including endogeneity, use of alternative estimation techniques, and use of alternative liquidity and readability proxies.

This study focuses on structuring tangible asset backed loans to inhibit their endemic option to default. We adapt the pragmatic approach of a margin loan in the configuring of collateralized debt to yield a quasi-default-free facility. We link our practical method to the current Basel III (2017) regulatory framework. Our new concept of the Loan Valuation Adjustment (LVA) and novel method to minimize the LVA converts the risky loan into a quasi risk-free loan and achieves value maximization for the lending financial institution. As a result, entrepreneurial activities are promoted and economic growth invigorated. Information asymmetry, costly bailouts and resulting financial fragility are reduced while depositors are endowed with a safety net equivalent to deposit insurance but without the associated moral hazard between risk-averse lenders and borrowers.

How does competition affect the investment banking business and the risks individual institutions are exposed to? Using a large sample of investment banks operating in seven developed economies over 1997–2014, we apply a panel VAR model to examine the relationships between competition and risk without assuming any a priori restrictions. Our main finding is that investment banks’ higher risk exposure, measured as a long-term capital-at-risk and return volatility, was facilitated by greater competitive pressures for both boutique investment banks and full-service investment banks. Overall, we find some evidence that more competition leads to more fragility before and during the recent financial crisis.

One explanation for the emergence of the housing market bubble and the subprime crisis is that increases in individuals’ income led to higher increases in the amount of mortgage loans demanded, especially for the middle class. This hypothesis translates to an increase in the income elasticity of mortgage loan demand before 2007. Using applicant-level data, we test this hypothesis and find that the income elasticity of mortgage loan demand in fact declines in the years before 2007, especially for the mid- and lower-middle income groups. Our finding implies that increases in house prices were not matched by increases in loan applicants’ income.

Thirty states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of cannabis for medicinal and/or recreational use by either formally or informally de-criminalizing its use. However, cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug under the Federal Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. Sections 801 through 812), leaving federal law in conflict with the laws of over half of the states. As a result, market participants in legal cannabis businesses face risks due to the industry's unique legal status within the United States. We examine the risks and challenges deemed by the cannabis industry as the top risks facing the industry's continued future growth and its sustainability. In addition to general risks inherent in a nascent industry, a legal cannabis business faces additional risks, such as risks in its banking and finance activity, placement of insurance, payment of taxes, and managing its supply chain. These legal businesses also face true legal risk from the possibility of being shut down by the federal government and seizure of assets and product under the CSA. This paper also examines whether the cannabis industry would benefit from a futures market to mitigate price risk.

As policy-makers in the United States contemplate a relaxation of financial regulation, our study contributes to this dialogue by testing the veracity of heightened standards of risk governance activities for US bank holding companies (BHCs). Our study examines evidence relating to the adoption of these standards by BHCs following regulatory intervention. We find that board-level risk appetite practices have a profound association upon BHC performance and tail risk. Our estimates show that BHCs which adopt risk appetite practices exhibit a significant improvement in headline performance and reduced tail risk measures. Our research is relevant to academics by identifying the significance of this risk governance practice which has been introduced by global regulators. For practitioners (including board members, risk managers, policy-makers and regulators), our study validates the efficacy of risk appetite frameworks as the future shape of financial regulation is being actively debated in the US.

Credit union decisions on how funds are raised and invested and what services to provide are guided by their business models and should be reflected by credit union financial statements. We use cluster analysis to group credit unions using common size financial statement variables such that the financial statements are similar within credit union groups and distinct across groups. This allows the assignment of credit unions to groups by knowing their essential elements but without predefining the groups. In this paper, we present six credit union strategic groups differentiated from each other by their asset-liability management choices and the services they provide members. Identifying the various credit union groups provides a clearer picture of their business models and the economic roles that different credit unions play.

In the recent crisis, the U.S. authorities bailed out numerous banks through TARP, whilst let many others to fail as going concern entities. Even though both interventions fully protect depositors, a bail out represents an implied subsidy to shareholders, which is not yet the case with closures where creditors are not subsidised. We investigate this non-uniform policy, demonstrating that size and not performance is the decision variable that endogenously determines one threshold below which banks are treated as TSTS by regulators and another one above which are considered to be TBTF. We, hence, provide a pair of economic rather than regulatory cut-offs for TBTF and TSTS banks. The shareholders and the other uninsured creditors of a distressed bank are not bailed out if the bank is considered to be TSTS. We further document that the less complex a bank is, the less likely is to be bailed out and, hence, to have all of its creditors protected.

Our study aims to examine whether market segmentation and competition manifested in the proliferation of multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) improve market quality after the implementation of MiFID. To do this, we employ the Common Factor Weight and Weighted Price Contribution methods to study relative price discovery for three major MTFs—LSE, BATS, and Turquoise, using intra-day, five-minute transaction prices. The results suggest that the two trading venues, BATS and Turquoise, contribute more to impounding fundamental information, implying a shift in price dominance from traditional LSE to MTFs. In addition, the intra-day price contributions of MTFs are higher than those of LSE, especially during the first and last periods of the day. The estimated average daily price contributions are consistent with this result.