This paper studies the impact of bank-specific financial indicators and macroeconomic variables on bank senior unsecured ratings by Moody’s. Controlling for bank financial characteristics, we find significant evidence of procyclicality in bank ratings stemming from lagged interaction effects...

Using an intertemporal model of asset pricing under asymmetric information, we demonstrate how public ratings about the quality of a risky asset could enhance information efficiency, albeit at a cost of higher asset price volatility. The analysis also draws implications for the use of ratings...

This paper considers a model of information-based bank runs where a central bank sets its lender of last resort (LOLR) policy in order to maximize welfare. To mitigate the risks associated with overinvestment by the banking sector, the central bank sets prudential liquidity requirements for the...

This article discusses the out-of-court restructuring of the contractual obligations of a financially distressed firm, under conditions of asymmetric information among the firm’s creditors and in situations where a creditor bank makes concessions conditional on other creditors’ actions. I...

We find evidence that banks target return on equity (RoE) and make active use of leverage to affect the speed of adjustment towards RoE targets. That holds for both the pre- and post-2007 periods and especially for banks that tend to operate with above median leverage among their peer group. As...