In this paper we analyse aggregate and firm level systemic risk for US and European banks from 2004 to 2012. We observe that common systemic risk indicators are primarily driven by firm size which implies an overriding concern for “too-big-to-fail” institutions. However, smaller banks may...

Credit spreads can be derived from the prices of securities traded in different markets. In this paper we investigate the price discovery process in single-name credit spreads obtained from bonds, credit default swaps, equities and equity options. Using a vector error correction model (VECM) of...

This paper investigates the role of credit and liquidity factors in explaining corporate CDS price changes during normal and crisis periods. We find that liquidity risk is more important than credit risk regardless of market conditions. Moreover, in the period prior to the recent ‘Great...

With a sample of twelve US bond indices spanning different maturities, credit ratings and industry sectors, we investigate the impact of new bank capital regulation for trading portfolios introduced by Basel III. Specifically, we estimate the new capital requirements for (a) liquidity risk and...

By using Moody's historical corporate default histories we explore the implications of scenarios based on the Great Depression for banks' economic capital and for existing and proposed regulatory capital requirements. By assuming different degrees of portfolio illiquidity, we then investigate...

International students are often well represented in graduate programmes in North America and Europe. Information on foreign countries' education systems and grading schemes is available but cross-country comparisons are often challenging and highly subjective. Therefore, universities have a...

Basel II rules allow qualified banks to assess the risk in their portfolio of credit exposures with a methodology based on the informational content of credit ratings and two crucial assumptions: (1) the credit risk of individual exposures is driven by one systematic risk factor only and (2) the...

The new bank capital regulation commonly known as Basel II includes a internal rating based approach (IRB) to measuring credit risk in bank portfolios. The IRB relies on the assumptions that the portfolio is fully diversified and that systematic risk is driven by one common factor. In this work...

Using a sample of US bank mergers from 1995 to 2012, we observe that the pre-post merger changes in CEO bonus are significantly negatively related to the strength of corporate governance within the bidding bank. This suggests that bonus compensation is not consistent with the “optimal...

Using a rich dataset of high frequency historical information we study the determinants of European sovereign bond returns over calm and crisis periods. We find that the importance of the equity risk factor varies greatly over time and crucially depends on country risk. In low risk countries,...