Shadow banking is growing rapidly in a number of developing countries, including China where it recently was estimated at around 20 trillion yuan (which is approximately a third the size of China's bank - lending market). The shadow banking sector in these countries is typically weakly...

Shadow banking is growing rapidly in a number of developing countries, including China where it recently was estimated at around 20 trillion yuan (which is approximately a third the size of China's bank - lending market). The shadow banking sector in these countries is typically weakly...

Covered bonds, traditionally associated with European finance since the time of Frederick the Great, are now becoming an important part of U.S., Canadian, and Asian finance. In these jurisdictions, market observers and government officials perceive the safety of covered bonds as an antidote for...

The recent financial woes of Greece and other nations are reinvigorating the debate over whether to bail out defaulting countries or, instead, restructure their debt. Bailouts are expensive, in the case of Greece costing potentially hundreds of billions of euros. But a bailout was virtually...

In a prior article, Professor Schwarcz examined the factors that differentiate Enron's questionable use of off-balance sheet special purpose entities, (SPEs) from the trillions of dollars of "legitimate" securitization and other structured-finance transactions that use SPEs. The presence of...

This essay examines, what, if anything, differentiates Enron's questionable use of off-balance-sheet special purpose entries, or SPEs, from the trillions of dollars of supposedly "legitimate" securitization and other structured finance transactions that use SPEs. The inquiry is important because...

This article, which is based on the author's keynote address at an April 5, 2013 conference at American University Washington College of Law on “Transactional Lawyering: Theory, Practice, & Pedagogy,” examines the role of transactional lawyers in a world of shadow banking. By reducing the...

This is one of three lectures I am giving in December 2012 at universities and government agencies in Shanghai and Beijing. In the context of comparing Western and Chinese shadow banking concerns and regulatory responses, this lecture addresses three broad questions: What is shadow banking...

This is one of three lectures I am giving in December 2012 at universities and government agencies in Shanghai and Beijing. This lecture begins by reviewing securitization's role in the global financial crisis. Next, it examines securitization's problems and compares the U.S. and Chinese...

This is one of three lectures I am giving in December 2012 at universities in Shanghai and Beijing. In this lecture, I explain the recent evolution of commercial trusts in the United States and then discuss some of the fundamental characteristics of commercial trusts and their more universal...