We investigate the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings on borrower-lender matching and the consequences of this matching for syndicated loan contracts. We find that firms with high ESG scores are more likely to borrow from banks likewise with high ESG and that this...

Procyclicality is an inherent feature of the real and especially the financial sector of an economy, which has been highlighted by the recent crisis. Due to procyclicality, banks are transformed from mitigation mechanisms to amplifiers of changes in economic activity potentially affecting...

This paper examines the simultaneous relationship between bank capital and risk. A model is set up which assumes that banks’ decisions regarding capital and risk are made endogenously in a dynamic pattern. A simultaneous equation system was estimated using an unbalanced panel of SEE banks from...

We represent the market for syndicated loans as a dynamic financial network and find that financial institutions have developed strong cross-border linkages over the 2000–2019 period. The most-connected financial institutions hold large shares of leveraged and covenant-lite loans. Our analysis...

A growing group of investors claim to use divestment strategies to stop financing economic activities harmful for the climate or society. In this paper we test whether investors also use this strategy against ethically-reprehensible behaviours of banks, especially when these investors represent...

We model how monetary policy shocks affect the lending behavior of small and large banks. Other things being equal, small banks are riskier than large banks since the latter are more likely to be bailed out. Thus, small banks face a higher cost of non-deposit financing and are unable to finance...

Governments around the globe protect the banking sector and enhance financial stability with a framework of rules, controls and procedures, referred to as the financial safety net. In the European Union (EU), the financial safety net lies within the competence of Member States and the efforts to...

The debt crisis in Greece and the resulting haircut on sovereign bonds (known as PSI) adversely affected bank capital and resulted in state funds being required to recapitalize the banks. During that process, several questions arose about the meaning of capital adequacy in banks. This paper...

This working paper was written by Simon H. Kwan (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco).This paper examines the impact of deposit rate deregulation on the market value of banks in Hong Kong. We do not find that the release of the Consumer Council’s Report “Are Hong Kong Depositors Fairly...

This paper uses the stochastic econometric cost frontier approach to investigate the cost efficiency of commercial banks in Hong Kong. On average, the X-efficiency of Hong Kong banks is found to be about 16 to 30 per cent of observed total costs, which is comparable to the findings in the U.S....