Credit rating agencies are frequently criticized for producing biased sovereign ratings. This article discusses how the home country of rating agencies could affect rating decisions as a result of political economy influences and cultural distance. Using data from nine agencies based in six...

In June 2016, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision warned that capital relief transactions “can be complex, artificial and opaque” and reduce capital requirements. In this article, we analyse the structure of synthetic ‘balance sheet' securitisations, which have, inter alia, the...

Credit rating agencies are frequently criticized for producing sovereign ratings that do not accurately reflect the economic and political fundamentals of rated countries. This article discusses how the home country of rating agencies could affect rating decisions as a result of political...

This paper examines the distribution of power within financial networks of investment banks in equity capital markets (ECMs) of three key economies in Asia — Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. Using social network analysis, it shows that while bulge-bracket banks occupy core positions in all...

SPACs or Special Purpose Acquisition Companies are shell companies, created to raise capital and used by private firms to access capital markets. Using a global sample of SPAC firms, this study assesses their performance and finds evidence of significant positive abnormal returns for SPAC firms...