This paper explores the ability of financial analysts to gauge the risk taken by banks and investigates the impact of the recent financial crisis. Using a sample of 36,343 analyst forecasts issued for 411 European banks over 2003-2009 we find that analyst forecasts are influenced by risk, the...

Based on a sample of mid-tier and top-tier internationally active banks with five-year senior CDS spreads, this paper investigates the determinants of CDS spreads and whether CDS spreads can be considered a good proxy of bank risk. The analysis encompasses three time periods: a pre-crisis period...