Informed capital is a crucial ingredient to a well-functioning market for start-upfinance, especially in times of difficult market conditions. For bank-basedsystems, the question regarding which investors actually supply informed capitalhas not yet been answered. To fill this gap, we conduct a...

This paper analyzes the effects of parliamentary election cycles on the Turkish banking system. Usingannual bank-level data representing all banks in Turkey during 1963–2007, we present evidence of meaningfuldifferences in the structure of bank assets, liabilities and financial performance...

This paper proposes a theoretical framework to analyze the impacts of credit and technologyshocks on business cycle dynamics, where firms rely on banks and households for capitalfinancing. Firms are identical ex ante but differ ex post due to different realizations of firmspecific technology...

This paper examines the effects of cross-border bank mergers on the risk and (abnormal) returns of acquiring banks. We find that overall, the acquirers´ risk neither increases nor decreases. In particular, on average neither their total risk nor their systematic risk falls relative to banks in...

Over the period 2002 to 2003, Switzerland and the European Union (EU) were engaged in negotiations regarding banking secrecy. The EU's stated goal was for Switzerland to abolish banking secrecy. Switzerland refused and offered to impose a withholding tax on interest income instead. The two...

In this paper we analyze the source and magnitude of marketing gains from selling structured debtsecurities at yields that reflect only their credit ratings, or specifically at yields on equivalently ratedcorporate bonds. We distinguish between credit ratings that are based on probabilities of...

Lack of transparency in securitization transactions significantly contributed to thesevere financial crisis of 2007–2009. To increase transparency we—based on arecent idea by Markowitz (2009)—propose an incentive compatible mechanismfor future securitization transactions: financial claims...

This paper reviews the market reaction to bank rescue packages announced in six countries between October 2008 and January 2009. The study distinguishes the impact on creditors as seen in the change of CDS spreads from the impact on shareholders as seen in the movement of bank stock prices....

In this paper we propose a framework for measuring and stress testing the systemic risk of a group of major financial institutions. The systemic risk is measured by the price of insurance against financial distress, which is based on ex ante measures of default probabilities of individual banks...

In recent years the market for asset backed securities (ABS) has shown a rapid growth. In an ABS transaction assets are first pooled and then securities backed by this pool are issued. In many cases, several tranches of securities differing with respect to their priority of payment are designed....