The use of informal finance is primarily discussed in the context of developing countries and start-up businesses. Survey data used in this study, however, shows that ``Family and Friends'' (F\&F) finance is also remarkably widespread among established firms in Germany, a highly developed...

This paper presents of a model of banking in order to study why different agents may prefer a 'regulation by the market' over the regulation by a governmental agency, and it illustrates the interaction of two sectors regulated in such alternative ways. Financial intermediaries can operate either...

We study a banking model in which regulatory arbitrage induces the existence of shadow banking next to regulated banks. We show that the size of the shadow banking sector determines its stability. Panic-based runs become possible only if this sector is large. Moreover, if regulated banks conduct...

We show that nonbanks (funds, shadow banks, fintech) reduce the effectiveness of tighter monetary policy on credit supply and the resulting real effects, and increase risk-taking. For identification, we exploit exhaustive US loan-level data since 1990s and Gertler-Karadi monetary policy shocks....

The growing popularity of fintechs has led the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to publish considerations about the effects of this emerging industry on stability and efficiency in the financial sector. Against this background, this paper compares the effects of competition and collaboration...

Using a unique data set that contains the complete ownership structure of the German stock market, we study the momentum and contrarian trading of different investor groups. Foreign investors and financial institutions, and especially mutual funds, are momentum traders, whereas private...

Using fund-, firm- and bank-level data we investigate the investments of private equity (PE) funds in the north-western regions of Italy. Both the private equity fund managers and the PE investments are heavily concentrated in this most developed area of the country. The average size of the...

Mutual funds' exposure to corporate bonds has brought concerns about risks arising from liquidity transformation back to the fore. With a focus on fund asset liquidity and investors, this paper explores the flow-performance relationship and the liquidity management of funds in the presence of...

This study provides evidence that investors’ demographic similarity to CEOs affects their investment decisions. We find that mutual fund managers overweight firms led by CEOs who resemble them in terms of age, ethnicity and gender. This finding is robust to excluding educational and local ties...

Macroprudential policies for financial institutions have received increasing prominence since the global financial crisis. These policies are often aimed at the commercial banking sector, while a host of other non-bank financial institutions, or shadow banks, may not fall under their...