European banks are exposed to a substantial amount of risky sovereign debt. The "missing bank capital" resulting from the zero-risk weight exemption for European banks for European sovereign debt amplifies the co-movement between sovereign CDS spreads and facilitates cross-border...

This paper provides an overview of stress-testing methodologies in Europe, with a focus on the advancements made by the European Central Bank's Financial Stability Committee Working Group on Stress Testing (WGST). Over a four-year period, the WGST played a pivotal role in refining stress-testing...

The latest regulatory framework, which has been introduced globally in the form of Basel III, and its implementation in the legislation of the member states of the European Union has generated much interest in the impact of regulation on the efficiency and profitability of banks. This study aims...

Libor is arguably the world's most important number with more than USD 350 trillion of loans and financial contracts referencing this rate. Libor benchmark interest rates are being replaced with alternative reference rates (ARRs). There is no guarantee Libor rates will continue to be quoted...

Stress-tests provide complementary information about banks’ risk exposures. Recent empirical evidence, however, has uncovered potential inaccuracies in stress-test based assessments. We investigate the regulatory implications of these inaccuracies. Without stress-tests, the regulator cannot...

This paper investigates the existence of nonlinearities in the relationship between financial development and income inequality, using the Instrumental Variable Threshold Regression (IVTR) introduced by Caner and Hansen (2004). It is shown, based on cross-sectional data of 60 developed and...

Behavioral reactions to terrorism may be displayed in different ways. While some individuals react by holding back on their financial and charitable activities following stressful events, others may express more generosity by increasing their giving due to solidarity and empathy with the...

This study builds a simultaneous equation model that establishes inter-connections among the measures of globalization, measures of democracy, human development, corruption perception index and per capita income, which in turn jointly influence social progress. The model has eleven equations in...