We evaluate the viability of credit default swaps (CDS) spreads as substitutes for credit ratings. We focus on CDS spreads based on the obligations of financial institutions, particularly fifteen large financial institutions that were prominently involved in the recent financial crisis. Our...

We consider the impact of mandatory information disclosure on bank safety in a spatial model of banking competition in which a bank's probability of success depends on the quality of its risk measurement and management systems. Under Basel II capital requirements, this quality is either fully or...

Our paper explores the influence of credit derivatives on bank credit supply theoretically and empirically. We build a two-stage model of financial intermediation, which treats the bank under consideration as one of a large number of monopolists in the local credit market. From the theoretical...

I analyze credit rating agencies and competition on a market with more than two agencies. Both investors and agencies react to each other's behavior. My model predicts cyclic dynamics in the base case: not only does the presence of trusting investors facilitate ratings inflation. In turn,...

Trading volumes in credit default swaps (CDS) have fallen by more than 75% since the 2008 financial crisis to less than $9 trillion notional amount outstanding as of June 2015. This dramatic decline in volumes comes, in part, because of new laws and regulations focused on reducing the risk of...

Pledging collateral to secure loans is a prominent feature in financing contracts around the world. Existing theories disagree on why borrowers pledge collateral. It is even more challenging to understand why in some countries collateral coverage exceeds, e.g., 300% of the value of a loan. This...

English Abstract: Financial liberalization accelerates global banks’ entry into new markets where host countries hope to spur investment and economic growth. However, banks sometimes retreat from their global ambitions and exit these new markets. This study demonstrates how difficulties of...

This paper studies the effects of the bank capital requirements imposed by the European authorities in October 2011 on loan collateral and personal guarantees usage to enhance capital ratios. We use detailed information on the loan contracts granted by a representative Spanish bank and several...

The policy debate surrounding predatory lending laws and the subprime mortgage market opposes two hypotheses. The first is that an efficient market is providing broader access to credit, offering mortgages with higher rates and fees to higher risk borrowers, and that prices relate directly to...