We examine the effect of firm credit rating downgrades on the pricing and structure of syndicated bank loans following rating downgrades in the firms' countries of domicile. We find that the sovereign ceiling policies used by credit rating agencies create a disproportionally adverse impact on...

The investment of foreign exchange reserves or other asset portfolios requires an assessment of the credit quality of investment counterparties. Traditionally, foreign exchange reserve and other asset managers relied on credit rating agencies (CRAs) as the main source of information for credit...

The investment of foreign exchange reserves or other asset portfolios requires an assessment of the credit quality of counterparties. Traditionally, foreign exchange reserve managers and other investors have relied on credit rating agencies (CRAs) as the main source for credit assessments. The...

The investment of foreign exchange reserves or other asset portfolios requires an assessment of the credit quality of investment counterparties. Traditionally, foreign exchange reserve and asset managers have relied on credit rating agencies (CRAs) as the main source for credit assessments. The...

Due to the asymmetry of information between borrowers that are small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and lenders (banks), many banks are considering this sector as a risky sector. It is crucial for banks to be able to distinguish healthy from risky companies in order to reduce their...

This paper evaluates the characteristics of a Point in Time (PiT) rating approach for the estimation of firms' credit risk in terms of procyclicality. To this end I first estimate a logit model for the probability default (PD) of a set of Italian non-financial firms during the period 2006-2012,...

We analyze the impact of sovereign rating changes on European corporate loan spreads. We demonstrate that sovereign downgrades lead to significant increases in the spread of loans to domestic firms. We find evidence that the negative effects of a sovereign downgrade are widespread across all...

Our study examines firms’ motivation to issue hybrid bonds. Hybrid bonds have been issued in more than 15 different countries around the world and have been the most relevant class of hybrid securities in these countries since 2005. A hybrid bond offers several structuring opportunities....

We estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on credit risk changes on a large sample of Polish SME firms. The Altman Z"-Score model, which has proven to be a powerful and robust bankruptcy prediction model across many industries and countries, is used to assess over 1,000 SMEs from seven...

Recent studies examining the effects of a credit rating on firms’ capital structure and adjustment of capital structure to target have focused predominantly on non-financial firms, with virtually no attention given to financial institutions. Using an international sample of 391 rated banks...