In this paper, calendar seasonality patterns are examined from day-of-the-week effect across weekly patterns, monthly analysis and whole-year seasonal strategies such as Sell in May and Halloween effect. The analysis is done across six indices, DAX, MDAX, SDAX, Eurostoxx 50, Stoxx Europe Mid 200...

One important source of systemic risk can arise from asset commonality among financial institutions. This indirect interconnection may occur when financial institutions invest in similar or correlated assets and it is also described as overlapping portfolios. In this paper, we propose a new...

Ethanol has been the subject of intense debate following the adoption of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) which established that the gasoline supply in the United States (U.S.) must contain 10% ethanol. This work seeks to identify hedging ratios using dynamic multivariate GARCH to best...

This paper investigates the managing strategies of a bank's liquidity reserve in the broader context of the role of asset-liability management according to the liquidity issues of a banking organisation. Several types of liquidity are presented and how these are interconnected and how they might...

I assess how Basel III, Solvency II and the low interest rate environment will affect the financial connection between the bank and insurance sector by changing the funding patterns of banks as well as the investment strategies of life insurance companies. Especially for life insurance...

This definitional, stocktaking paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the concepts and definitions related to “green” investments that are currently used in the market place. The purpose of this research is not to take a position on a specific definition but rather to explore what...

Many college and university 403(b) plans restrict the menu of investment choices to funds offered by TIAA-CREF, the current manager of over half of all 403(b) contributions. Further, in the face of Internal Revenue Code changes that will take effect in 2006 and will make 403(b) plan ERISA...

Classical financial theory assumes that individuals are perfectly rational and act by usingcomplete and homogeneous information sets. For a long time, this has been used both ondescriptive and normative grounds. However, empirical research has shown thatinvestors systematically commit reasoning...

Choosing a proper external risk measure is of great regulatory importance, as exemplified in the Basel II and Basel III Accord which use Value-at-Risk (VaR) with scenario analysis as the risk measures for setting capital requirements. We argue a good external risk measure should be robust with...

In this chapter we describe stress testing at banks covering the major products and businesses in which banks engage. This includes commercial and retail lending, capital markets (investment banking, sales and trading), and trust and custody. We cover loss and net income modeling and thus...