Size effects matter in banking. Typically, banking systems are dominated by a smallnumber of large players who are also active in a large range of countries and marketsegments. At the same time, there exist small and often regionally-focused financialinstitutions. This holds also for the German...

Rating agencies state that they take a rating action only when it is unlikely to bereversed shortly afterwards. Based on a formal representation of the rating process, Ishow that such a policy provides a good explanation for the empirical evidence: Ratingchanges occur relatively seldom, exhibit...

Rating agencies state that they take a rating action only when it is unlikely to bereversed shortly afterwards. Using a formal representation of the rating process, I showthat such a policy provides a good explanation for the empirical evidence: ratingchanges relatively seldom occur, they...

The purpose of a compensation system is the protection of small investors. The system shouldincrease investors' confidence in financial market institutions and, therefore, support financialmarket stability. The main objective of Compensation System in the EU is adjusting EU memberstates to...

This paper studies the implications of cross-border financial integration for financialstability when banks’ loan portfolios adjust endogenously. Banks can be subjectto sectoral and aggregate domestic shocks. After integration they can share theserisks in a complete interbank market. When...

Banking regulators often practice forbearance and ambiguity in insolvency resolutions. The paperexamines the effects of regulatory forbearance and ambiguity in a context of allocational efficiency.Bailouts, liquidations and their stochastic policy mix lead to suboptimal allocations if banks do...

Financial intermediaries may increase economic efficiency through intertemporal risk smoothing.However without an adequate regulation, intermediation may fail to do this. This paper studiesthe effects of a production shock in a closed economy and compares abilities of market-based andbank-based...