Im Mittelpunkt der gerade auch von solchen "atypischen Unternehmen" nach wie vor geäußerten Ängste stehen die durch das Basler Gremium geforderten Ratingsysteme, wobei Beobachter der Diskussion den Eindruck gewinnen können, als wäre das Rating von Kreditnehmern etwas völlig Neuartiges....

Die gründliche Überprüfung der Kreditwürdigkeit eines Vertragspartners ist keineswegs ein Novum auf den Finanzmärkten, sondern wird in ihren Grundzügen schon seit Jahrhunderten unter Kaufleuten vor Eingehung von Geschäftsbeziehungen praktiziert. Dies zeigt sich z. B. in zeitgenössischer...

This paper examines how capital is determined by German banks. We analyse whether the determinants found in the previous empirical literature hold for the special German banking sector with its three characteristic banking groups of savings banks, cooperative banks and other banks. On the basis...

This paper documents that standard cross-sectional determinants of firm leverage also apply to the capital structure of large banks in the United States and Europe. We find a remarkable consistency in sign, significance and economic magnitude. Like non-financial firms, banks appear to have...

This paper analyzes banks' choice between lending to firms individually and sharing lending with other banks, when firms and banks are subject to moral hazard and monitoring is essential. Multiple-bank lending is optimal whenever the benefit of greater diversification in terms of higher...

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 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...

Developments in risk-transfer instruments and risk management techniques in the last two decades have fundamentally changed how banks manage their assets and liabilities. In this document we show that, for all three sectors of German universal banks (private commercial banks, savings banks, and...