In the last few years it has been possible to observe decreasing interest margins for German universal banks. At the same time, institutions increasingly moved part of their business from interest to fee-earning activities. This study analyzes the determinants of non-interest income and its...

The paper discusses the impact of the Basel II Accord on the financing of small and medium size enterprises (SME) in Austria. Although the Basel II Accord has not been established yet, the study tries to evaluate the expected impact of the Basel II Accord on SMEs, on the bases of the current...

During the past two years, private equity funds have acquired substantial portfolios of nonperforming loans from banks in Germany. Typically a private equity investor does not commit funds unless exit strategies are clearly defined. The usual exit strategies for distressed debt investors are fix...

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...

This paper studies 'Stylised Facts' and 'Determinants' of short-and long-term CDS-spreads of banks. As short-term spreads we choose 6M-, as long-term spreads we choose 5Y-spreads. In the section 'Stylised Facts' we found that the correlation between short-and long-term spreads for the total...

This paper examines the financing structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany and questions whether an equity gap - or, more generally, a financing gap -exists. Reviewing the literature and available data sources, we find that financing constraints seem to affect, if at...

The current financial market crisis has impressively demonstrated the importance of an effective credit risk management for financial institutions. At the same time, the use and the valuation of credit derivatives has been widely criticised as a result of the crisis. Over the past decade, credit...

The current financial market crisis has impressively demonstrated the importance of an effective credit risk management for financial institutions. At the same time, the use and the valuation of credit derivatives has been widely criticised as a result of the crisis. Over the past decade, credit...

The German Commercial Code (HGB) allows banks to build visible reserves for general banking risks according to section 340g HGB. These GBR reserves may, in addition to their risk provisioning function, be used to enhance capital endowment, for internal financing, signaling or earnings management...

This paper analyzes the importance of equity finance for the R&D activity of small and medium-sized enterprises. We use information on almost 6000 German SMEs from a company survey. Using the intensity of banking competition at the district level as instrument to control for endogeneity, we find...