Repurchase Agreements (Repo) transactions are widely used as a risk-free means of raising or investing funds. Repo transactions can be categorized into the following two types: (i) general repos whose purpose is to borrow or lend funds, and (ii) special repos whose purpose is to borrow or lend...

A common problem in credit risk management is the estimation of probabilities of rare default events in high investment grades, when sufficient default data are not available. In addressing this issue, increasing attention has been paid to the use of continuous time Markov chains for modeling...

Liquidity in the Japanese government bond (JGB) market has improved significantly as a result of a series of market reforms implemented since 2000. Market liquidity is a measure of "the level of ease with which trading can be conducted in the market." In order to facilitate trading in the JGB...

Window guidance is considered an important instrument of monetary policy by Chinese monetary authorities. Since the middle of 2009, window guidance has been strengthened in response to their fast growing economy and rising real estate prices, leading to the current slowdown in loan growth....

One of the most important agendas for the revival of the Japanese economy is to improve direct financing channels for firms. Over the past few months, financial experts were invited to a "Study Group on the Securitization of Small to Medium-sized Enterprises' Receivables," held at the Financial...

Global commodity prices have been rising again since 2009, and particularly rapidly since the fall of 2010. While the strong increase in commodity prices has been driven by global economic growth propelled by emerging economies, speculative investment flows into commodity markets have amplified...

Japan's financial structure has changed since the later half of the 1990s. The results of the Japanese "Big Bang" initiative have gradually manifested themselves in the domestic financial structure. The key factor here was the financial crisis of 1997- 1998. Throughout the 1990s, the household...