Over the past several years, substantial research effort has gone into measuring the efficiency of financial institutions. Many studies have found that inefficiencies are quite large, on the order of 20% or more of total banking industry costs and about half of the industry's potential profits....

Most of the early studies of bank efficiency focused on scale and product mix efficiency, or how close banks are to producing at the scale or product mix that minimizes costs per unit of output. Despite these past efforts, something rather important is missing from most of the analysis according...

This paper has the following two objectives: to examine how reinsurance coupled with new financial instruments can expand coverage to those residing in areas subject to catastrophic losses from natural disasters, and to show how reinsurance and the catastrophe-linked financial instruments can be...

The authors empirically investigate models of insurance futures derivatives contracts. In the fall of 1993 the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) started trading a contract designed to scrutinize catastrophic risk, which is currently done in the reinsurance markets. There are obvious advantages to...

In this paper, we examine the foreign exchange exposure of a sample of U. S. and Japanese banking firms. Using daily data, we construct estimates of the exchange rate sensitivity of the equity returns of the U.S. bank holding companies and compare them to those of the Japanese banks. We find...

This document is one of two papers on Wharton's FDIC Research Database. Working paper #95-24 reviews the structure and data elements of the database. Supplement #95-24 facilitates its installation and use.

The role of information acquisition for bank regulators is important for the recognition and possible control of bank risk. This role is also consistent with the modern theory of banking under which banks hold a substantial amount of private information about their loan customers, and by...

The corporate governance systems operating in different countries are distinct. In the U.S. and U.K., it is often argued that the threat of takeover ensures managers act in the shareholders' interests. In countries such as Germany, Japan, and France, it is suggested banks and other institutions...

The past few years have seen the development and growth of traded securities with payoffs tied to natural disasters. With this comes a need for tools to evaluate the underlying risks involved. Pricing the insurance features imbedded in these securities is difficult and imprecise. This lack of...

Throughout the past year, on-site visits to financial service firms were conducted to review and evaluate their financial risk management systems. The commercial banking analysis covered a number of North American super-regionals and quasi-money center institutions as well as several firms...