The paper examines the key drivers of gold investment. Since 2000 the gold price has risendrastically, making gold an interesting add-on to a portfolio. As gold futures have negativeroll returns, gold pool accounts are characterized by high credit risk and physical possessionof gold means high...

This paper explores approaches to measure the performance of the internal audit function.Based upon three proposed dimensions of formal internal audit performance – material performance,cost and risk – it uses competence research methodology to characterize and structureinternal audit...

Within the last decade, credit risk management of financial institutions has been subject to major changes due to the development of the credit derivatives market. In the past, financial institutions merely had the possibility to manage their credit portfolio by either approving or refusing a...

Investment decisions of cooperative banks are very restricted to their risk capacity. A well defined and organised Risk Management Process supports those investment activities and assists to achieve a balanced situation between risk and return.Several ways can be chosen to allocate risk capital....

The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamic relationships between some key variables for the euro area by means of a systems approach (i.e. so-called Vector Autoregression) and to simulate their responses with respect to monetary policy shocks. The main result is that rather simple...

Hedge Funds are often considered as a possibility for optimizing traditional portfolios due to their alternative risk factors and sources of return. But as the return distribution of hedge funds shows negative skewness and excess kurtosis, using portfolio optimization techniques, based on the...

The report deals with the current questions relating to the work-out, outsourcing and servicingof non-performing-loans. After a brief market description the paper addresses the specificproblems, which arise when servicing real estate and corporate loans. Within these frameworkissues, which...

The working report looks at the actual situation of the German broadband cable market in thecontext of merger control and sector specific regulation. A crucial problem in dealing with thecable market whether in antitrust cases or in the regulatory context is the precise assessmentof the economic...

The legal environment for Securities Prospectuses in Germany has changed dramatically withthe implementation of the German Securities Prospectus Act (Wertpapierprospektgesetz- WpPG) and the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 809/2004 of 29 April 2004 (ProspectusRegulation) regulating their content...

During the past two years, private equity funds have acquired substantial portfolios of nonperformingloans from banks in Germany. Typically a private equity investor does notcommit funds unless exit strategies are clearly defined. The usual exit strategies for distresseddebt investors are “fix...