Are investment banks fiduciaries of their merger and acquisition clients? If not, what rules, if any, constrain the conflicts of interest M&A advisors may face when advising their clients? These questions are rarely asked but central to the regulation of investment banking activities. In their...

In this paper we review the pricing and model calibration of Credit Default Swaps referring to both the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) CDS contract and credit model standardization guidelines. Furthermore we provide an Excel pricing workbook to supplement the materials...

The aim of this paper is to briefly present and assess the institutional framework governing the (and some main legal aspects related to the) European Banking Union (EBU), as in force, and the proposals made or suggested in order to enhance it. The paper is structured in three (3) Sections: (1)...

In this paper we discuss the continued transition of financial markets towards trade standardization and the clearing of transactions, outlining the role of central clearing counterparties CCPs in reducing systemic and idiosyncratic risk. We contrast this with a discussion on bespoke non-cleared...

This study is aiming to present (and to a certain extent analyse) the provisions of Articles 24-30 of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 “on markets in financial instruments (…)” (‘MiFID II') – including the relevant provisions of the...

We study a sample of the world's largest financial conglomerates from 15 countries and we track their largest divestitures over the period 2005-2016. We develop a novel market-based metric to analyse the impact of divestitures on financial conglomerate excess value, and our findings point to...

In the 1970s and 80s, as major financial institutions grew and diversified their operations, courts and scholars recognized that fiduciary law posed profound challenges for the organizational practices of these firms. The challenges were considered existential by some: firms, ultimately, would...

Using 30,466 bank loan deals originated during 1990-2005, we examine why firms switch to new banks for their repeat loans instead of staying with their relationship banks. Employing a variety of measures to proxy for firms' informational transparency, we find that the soft information...

This paper investigates the lending practices related to leverage buyouts (LBOs) market between high and low write-down institutions. The write-downs, which are a proxy for business aggression of institutions, are mainly related to credit crisis from the beginning of 2007 to August 10, 2008. We...