Since the mid-1980s, the share of household net worth intermediated by US financial institutions has shifted from defined benefit plans to life insurers and defined contribution plans. Life insurers have primarily grown through variable annuities, which are mutual funds with longevity insurance,...

Since the mid-1980s, the share of household net worth intermediated by US financial institutions has shifted from defined benefit plans to life insurers and defined contribution plans. Life insurers have primarily grown through variable annuities, which are mutual funds with longevity insurance,...

For investment projects with low probabilities of success, long time horizons, and large capital requirements, traditional financing sources such as private and public equity may not be ideal. Nevertheless, such projects may yield attractive risk-adjusted returns when combined into a single...

The Great Recession has been characterised by the two stylized facts: the buildup of leverage in the household sector in the period preceding the recession and a protracted economic recovery that followed. We attempt to explain these two facts as an information friction, whereby agents are...

Asset-backed securities (ABSs) and covered bonds (CBs) are structured finance instruments that require a range of key services, which may be provided by many firms. However, despite the prevalence of structured finance instruments in Europe, the network between issuers and service providers has...

Project finance is the process of financing a specific economic unit that the sponsors create, in which creditors share much of the venture’s business risk and funding is obtained strictly for the project itself. Project finance, often used for capital-intensive facilities and utilities, is...

Structured finance (SF) – project finance (PF) loans and asset securitization (AS) bonds – and straight debt finance (SDF) – corporate bonds (CB) – transactions are priced in segmented capital markets. Credit spreads are higher for PF loans than they are for AS and CB issues. SF and SDF...

Risk matters when corporate debt has a positive probability of default. Lenders have traditionally used covenants to protect their property rights because the financing and operating decisions of firms can reduce the value of the firm’s outstanding debt. We examine the use of captive finance...

The commercial mortgage-backed security market has experienced rapid growth in recent years, and is now the second most important source of intermediation to the commercial real estate sector. Despite its growing importance, relatively little academic research has questioned the apparent success...

As observed at least in last two decades, financial engineering has not only changed the way of doing business in finance world, but also has changed daily life of average citizens in the leading economies. Structured products named as weapons of mass destruction in some post-crisis comments....