We find that winning bidders in FDIC failed bank auctions from 2008 to 2013 experience substantial positive abnormal stock returns. Returns are inversely related to bid amounts after controlling for bid determinants, consistent with wealth transfers from the FDIC providing implicit subsidies to...

Compared to matched conventional mutual funds, socially responsible mutual funds outperform during periods of market crises. This dampening of downside risk comes at the cost of underperforming during non-crisis periods. Investors seeking downside protection would value the asymmetry of these...

Given recent regulatory inquiries into the derivative-trading practices of mutual funds, we examine their detailed option holdings to assess how mutual funds employ options, what funds use options, and how that affects performance and risk. Mutual funds’ use of options appears consistent with...

In this paper we investigate whether the determinants of international equity investment differ between investors with different degrees of sophistication. For this purpose, we analyse and compare the determinants of international equity investment of institutional and noninstitutional investors...

This paper contributes to the crucial problem of LIBOR malfunctioning due to its manipulation by banks, a phenomenon described clearly in the FSA Inquiry Report published in September 2012. After applying classical tests of non-stationarity to a series of participating banks’ LIBOR quotes, we...

We estimate convergence in the European retail payments market during the period 1995–2011 for the most popular retail payment instruments: cash, debit card, credit card, direct debit, credit transfer, cheque and e-money. To estimate convergence, we employ the concepts of beta and sigma...

Should central banks lend against low quality collateral? We characterize efficient central bank collateral policy in a model where a bank borrows from the interbank market or the central bank. Collateral has favorable incentive effects but is costly to transfer to lenders who value the...

In this paper, we analyze whether regulation reduced risk during the credit crisis and the sovereign debt crisis for a cross section of global banks. In this regard, we examine distance to default (Laeven and Levine, 2008), systemic risk (Acharya et al., 2010), idiosyncratic risk, and systematic...

Using survey based data, we investigate factors influencing credit rationing within a bank-based financial system. We show that rationing depends on various dimensions of the firm-bank relationships and that the effects of relationship lending on rationing are not identical for different firm...

This study analyses the effect of board diversity (gender and nationality) on performance in banks. By making use of a sample of 159 banks in nine countries during the period 2004–2010, our empirical evidence shows that gender diversity increases bank performance, while national diversity...