Lenders can transfer credit risk by purchasing credit default swaps (CDS), but holding swaps can diminish their incentives to monitor borrowers. Contracting theory predicts that lenders demand conservatism, in particular asymmetric timeliness of loss recognition, to effectively monitor...

We examine the impact of SFAS 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, on the reporting behavior of commercial banks and the informativeness of their financial statements. We argue that, because mandatory recognition of hedge ineffectiveness under SFAS 133 reduced...

Standard setters and many investors argue that loan fair values provide more useful information about credit losses than historical cost information while bankers and others generally disagree. We examine the ability of reported loan fair values to predict credit losses relative to the ability...

This study analyzes corporate environmental management and its implications for bond investors. We provide support for the view that the credit standing of borrowing firms is influenced by legal, reputational, and regulatory risks associated with environmental incidents. Using environmental...

Under semi-strong market efficiency future returns are unpredictable from previously released information. We test the degree of semi-strong form market efficiency in the credit default swap (CDS) market by examining the relationship between subsequent CDS returns and previously announced...

Up to the 2007 crisis, research within bottom‐up CDO models mainly concentrated on the dependence between defaults. However, due to the substantial increase in the market price of systemic credit risk protection, more attention has been paid to recovery rate assumptions.In this paper, we focus...

This study examines the sources of credit risk associated with asset securitizations and whether credit rating agencies and the bond market differ in their assessment of this risk. Measuring credit risk using credit ratings, we find the securitizing firm's credit risk is positively related to...

Recent years have seen a new trend in commercial bank lending—loans with no financial covenants. These covenant light, or cov-lite, loans raise concerns about excessive risk to lenders due to lack of monitoring. In this study, we examine the consequences of cov-lite loans. Focusing on rated,...

This article investigates the relationship between discretionary loan loss provisions and bank intangibles among African banks. Prior studies examine how intangible assets affect firms' profitability and valuation decisions with almost no focus on the role of loan loss provisions. We investigate...

Policy uncertainty (PU) is an increasingly important issue in many economies. Extensive evidence indicates that higher PU is associated with future negative macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions. In this paper, we examine how PU affects banks' accruals for loan losses. Consistent with banks...