The Basel III framework represents the response to the regulation deficits of the financial cri-sis and the immense losses of many banks in years 2007/2008. The aim of the framework is to increase the level of capital in financial institutions and to improve the loss absorption and risk coverage...

Economics is increasingly adopting the methodological standards and procedures of the natural sciences. The paper analyzes this 'naturalistic turn' from the philosophical perspective on naturalism, and I discuss the implications for the field of finance. The theory of finance is an interesting...

The globalisation on financial markets and the development of financial derivatives has increased not only chances but also potential risk within the banking industry. Especially market risk has gained major significance since market price variation of interest rates, stocks or exchange rates...

Market risk management is one of the key factors to success in managing financial institutions. Underestimated risk can have desastrous consequences for individual companies and even whole economies, not least as could be seen during the recent crises. Overestimated risk, on the other side, may...

The paper discusses the impact of the Basel II Accord on the financing of small and medium size enterprises (SME) in Austria. Although the Basel II Accord has not been established yet, the study tries to evaluate the expected impact of the Basel II Accord on SMEs, on the bases of the current...

Das Geschäft mit Derivaten und strukturierten Finanzprodukten ist verstärkter Kritik ausgesetzt. Ziel des Aufsatzes ist die kritische Auseinandersetzung mit den Thesen der Kritiker und der Rolle der Bank bei den genannten Geschäften.

In almost every financial market crisis we can observe widening credit spreads, especially in the last years during the subprime and sovereign debt crisis. But what exactly drives the credit spread? This paper will outline static components, i.e. default risk, liquidity, risk and the relative...

This paper investigates the managing strategies of a bank's liquidity reserve in the broader context of the role of asset-liability management according to the liquidity issues of a banking organisation. Several types of liquidity are presented and how these are interconnected and how they might...

This paper examines why unsolicited ratings tend to be lower than solicited ratings. Both self-selection among issuers and strategic conservatism of rating agencies may be reasonable explanations. Analyses of default incidences of non-U.S. borrowers between January 1996 and December 2006 show...

Credit risk measurement and management become more important in all financial institutions in the light of the current financial crisis and the global recession. This particularly applies to most of the complex structured financing forms whose risk cannot be quantified with com-mon rating...