One of the important consequences to be drawn from the course of the financial crisis up to now is the insight that more attention must be paid in the future to the factors of liquidity, liquidity management and liquidity protection. That holds true for the protection of the stability of an...

On May 11-12, 2011, SUERF, the Belgian Financial Forum, the Brussels Finance Institute and the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) jointly organised the 29th SUERF Colloquium New paradigms in money and finance? The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the...

The financial crisis has generated a renewed interest in financial regulation as well as corporate governance more generally, among both academics and lawmakers. A large number of bills have been introduced in the Congress to address one or more aspects of corporate governance, including most...

During recent years heightened standards for board audit committee membership has been imposed by the SEC, NYSE and others. Sarbanes-Oxley requires that the Audit Committee will be comprised solely of independent directors, and that the company must disclose whether at least one of the members...

This article should serve as an introduction into cat-bonds, how they work and what advantages they have in portfolio construction.It also the possibility merging two familiar concepts, cat-bonds and Public Private Partnership (PPP). By doing so, infrastructure could be financed in a way that...

A well-designed deposit insurance system (DIS) will provide incentives for citizens to keep the financial system sound. However, a poorly designed DIS can foster a financial crisis. This paper, therefore, makes recommendations for creating and running a limited, incentive-compatible, DIS. The...

Using 2002–2014 insurer transactions, we provide the first empirical evidence on underwriters' allocation practices in the primary market for corporate bonds. Since bonds are often underpriced, allocations generate for investors an estimated $41 billion of first-day profits. These profits...

The paper surveys the characteristics of explicit systems of deposit insurance in 68 countries. It compares these actual practices with a set of best practices that has been adopted by IMF staff for their advice to member countries. These best practices seek to establish a system of deposit...

I identify the effects of financial constraints on firms' product pricing decisions, using insurance groups containing both life and property & casualty (P&C) divisions. Following P&C divisions' losses, life divisions change prices in a manner that can generate more immediate financial...

In this paper we review changes in the insurance industry due to new risk-based regulations such as Solvency 2 and SST. The move from corporate management based on cash-flow to risk-based management is described and discussed through its consequences on capital management, economic valuation and...