The financial services industry has undergone significant regulatory change in thepast two decades due to Basel II (banking) and Solvency II (insurance). Even though these promulgations are focused on European institutions, their influenceextends around the globe. An important dimension of this...

On 3 December EY hosted a SUERF conference on banking reform with Sir Howard Davies, the Chairman of RBS, and Dame Colette Bowe, the Chairman of the Banking Standards Board, as the two keynote speakers. Professor David Miles (Imperial College) gave the SUERF 2015 Annual Lecture on Capital and...

Financial regulators can enhance the credibility of credit ratings if agencies are offered a registration facility that sequesters part of their fee as a performance bond over a designated maturity. The margin can be responsive to the rating, the defined credit event, and the registration...

Corporate off-balance sheet transactions that used special-purpose entities (“SPEs”) facilitated the expansion of structured finance during the years leading up to the Great Recession. Specifically, SPEs conferred bankruptcy remote, liquidity, leverage and interest rate risk benefits on...

SEC regulations in 1975 gave select rating agencies increased market power by increasing both barriers to entry and the reliance on ratings for regulations. We test whether these regulations led to ratings inflation. We find that defaults and negative financial changes are more likely for firms...

This chapter reviews statutory and court sanctioned private regulatory frameworks affecting the creation of private equity (PE) funds and their primary activity of acquiring corporate enterprises. The chapter reviews U.S. legislation regulating securities, investment companies, and tender...

This essay, based on the author's presentation last September to the annual meeting of the North American Securities Administration Association (NASAA), addresses several issues related to Rule 506, the most widely-used of the SEC's transactional exemptions from federal registration of...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of bank mergers on systemic and systematic risks on the relative merits of product and market diversification strategies. It also observes determinants of M&A deals criteria, product and market diversification positioning, crisis...

We model the new quantitative aspects of market risk management for banks that Basel established in 2016 and came into effect in January 2019. Market risk is measured by Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) or Expected Shortfall at a confidence level of 97.5%. The regulatory backtest remains largely...

We take issue with claims that the funding mix of banks, which makes them fragile and crisis-prone, is efficient because it reflects special liquidity benefits of bank debt. Even aside from neglecting the systemic damage to the economy that banks' distress and default cause, such claims are...