The purpose of this paper is to address two issues. It defines the appropriate role played by institutions in the financial sector and focuses on the role of risk management in firms that use their own balance sheets to provide financial products. A key objective is to explain when risks are...

Growing competition, convergence of the loan and capital markets, and the greater complexity of commercial loan structure have heightened the need for banks to manage their loan portfolios in a more sophisticated way. This is true for the management of individual transactions and for the loan...

This paper presents evidence that the traditional banking business of accepting deposits and making loans has declined significantly in the US in recent years. There has been a switch from directly held assets to pension funds and mutual funds. However, banks have maintained their position...

This paper summarizes the findings of the joint Wharton Financial Institutions Center and KPMG study of the retirement assets market and the role of life insurance companies within it. The study began with the following goals:<p> Investigate how people save for retirement and whether this is...</p>

Throughout the past year, on-site visits to financial service firms were conducted to review and evaluate their financial risk management systems. The commercial banking analysis covered a number of North American super-regionals and quasi-money center institutions as well as several firms...

Throughout the past year, on-site visits to financial service firms were conducted to review and evaluate their risk management systems. In the insurance sector, this evaluation covered a number of prominent life/health and property/casualty insurers, both in the U.S. and abroad. The information...

This paper examines the role of reinsurance relationships in the trading of underwriting risk when this trade takes place in an environment that is characterized by asymmetric information and in which information is revealed only over time. It begins by explaining how information problems affect...

The financial system is regulated to achieve a wide variety of purposes. However, the objective that distinguishes financial regulation from other kinds is that of safeguarding the economy against systemic risk. Concerns regarding systemic risk focus largely on banks, which traditionally have...

The role of the insurance industry in the retirement assets market is examined. The popular image of the industry as one in decline is scrutinized by drawing upon various governmental and industry data sources.<p> <p>Our examination begins with the traditional area of corporate pensions, specifically,...</p></p>

The virtual collapse of several Asian markets has triggered a series of aftershocks in the global financial markets. From the alleged contagion that spread the crisis to Russia and South America to the de facto collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), the repercussions of these events...