Using unique hand-collected data on CEO compensation packages retrieved from the largest 59 European banks from 16 Western European countries for the period from 2000 to 2008 this paper provides empirical evidence that both variable cash-based and variable equity-based compensation are...

Employing compensation data provided by 63 banks from 16 European countries for the period from 2000 to 2010 this paper empirically investigates the impact of excess variable compensation on bank risk. As a main finding, we provide evidence for a risk-increasing impact of excess variable pay for...

We investigate the link between the incentive mechanisms embedded in CEO cash bonuses and the riskiness of banks. For a sample of U.S. and European banks, we employ the Merton distance to default model to show that increases in CEO cash bonuses lower the default risk of a bank. However, we find...

Recent financial crisis has renewed attention on compensation schemes and their impact on risk-taking in depository institutions. Without ample theoretical and empirical backing, the recent policy proposals in the EU have suggested that long-term incentive plans that are closely linked to bank...

This paper considers the effects of the 1993 legislation limiting the deductibility of non-performance-based executive compensation for corporate income tax purposes. We begin by describing the specific provisions of the legislation, and we discuss its possible effects on overall compensation...

We analyze the impact of incentive mechanisms embedded in executive remuneration contracts on the risk choices made by bank CEOs. For a panel of US and European banks, we employ the Merton distance to default model to estimate how bonus payments and option holdings impact the level of bank...

Asset-backed securities (ABSs) and covered bonds (CBs) are structured finance instruments that require a range of key services, which may be provided by many firms. However, despite the prevalence of structured finance instruments in Europe, the network between issuers and service providers has...

This study investigates the bank competition-stability nexus using a unique regulatory dataset provided by the Deutsche Bundesbank over the period 1994 to 2010. First, we use outright bank defaults as the most direct measure of bank risk available and contrast the results to weaker forms of bank...

Using a panel data approach with bank-fixed effects, we study the impact of Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO) on banks’ risk, given by their distance to default (DtD). The study aims to determine if the liquidity from TLTROs influences banks’ risk-taking behaviour. For the...

This is a chapter for a forthcoming volume Oxford Handbook of Financial Regulation (Oxford University Press 2014) (eds. Eilís Ferran, Niamh Moloney, and Jennifer Payne). It provides an overview of EU financial regulation from the first banking directive up until its most recent developments in...