This paper provides evidence of ratings shopping in the corporate bond market. By estimating systematic differences in agencies' biases about any given firm's bonds, I show that new bonds are more likely to be rated by agencies that are positively biased towards the firm---a pattern that is...

This paper evaluates the model risk of models used for forecasting systemic and market risk. Model risk, which is the potential for different models to provide inconsistent outcomes, is shown to be increasing with market uncertainty. During calm periods, the underlying risk forecast models...

The Basel capital is a “margin” requirement imposed by regulators to cushion banks against extreme falls in prices of assets held, and is often a function of value-at-risk (VaR). The way banks adjust their balance sheets to maintain the requirement is equivalent to leverage targeting that...

The paper aims to examine the new regulatory framework of project finance in the economics of banking firms. In particular, the paper investigates the uniqueness of the project finance, the significant importance of the project finance in bank activity, and the role of the new bank capital...

This article develops a new theory of interconnected financial contracts. It focuses on a common type of interconnected contracting scenario, in which party A enters into a contract with B, and B enters into a separate contract with C. While A and C are not in privity of contract, their common...

This paper attempts to investigate the impact of credit information sharing on bank-specific stock price crash risk. Using a sample of 1,402 listed-banks in 55 countries for the period 2005-2013, we show that credit information sharing through public credit registries is negatively associated...

In this paper we review the pricing and model calibration of Credit Default Swaps referring to both the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) CDS contract and credit model standardization guidelines. Furthermore we provide an Excel pricing workbook to supplement the materials...

We find that a firm's stock price reaction to its credit rating downgrade announcement is muted by 44--52% when credit default swaps (CDSs) trade on its debt. We explore the role of the CDS markets in providing information ex ante and relieving financing frictions ex post for downgraded firms....

Firm political contributions are associated with lower credit default swap spreads for contributing firms. To address endogeneity, we employ novel instruments and use a set of exogenous events on campaign contribution restrictions: (a) the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)...

This paper investigates the relationship between bank capital ratios and lending rates using data from 1998 to 2012 for 13 large banks accounting for 75% of total UK lending. We document a substantial change in the coefficient of the Tier 1 capital ratio in reduced-form regressions for secured...