Selective Trading of Available-for-Sale Securities: Evidence from U.S. Commercial Banks

This paper examines the selective trading of available-for-sale (AFS) securities by U.S. banks after the implementation of fair value accounting under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 115, Accounting Standards Codification Topic 320. Our findings suggest firms still engage in earnings management through selective selling of AFS securities despite the mandatory disclosure of unrealized security holding gains and losses in their financial statements. Such activities do not appear to be driven by the lack of reliability of the fair value measure. Instead, the degree of earnings management varies significantly with the reporting format of unrealized AFS security holding gains and losses. We find evidence of earnings management among banks that choose to report unrealized holding gains and losses in the statement of shareholders’ equity. By contrast, we find no such evidence among banks disclosing unrealized holding gains and losses in the income statement.     

WINNERS AND LOSERS FROM DOLLAR DEPRECIATION

We examine the relationship between the US current account deficit, the international value of the dollar, and the dollar reserves of foreign central banks. The declining dollar could benefit US savers at the expense of foreign investors in the USA.     

The impact of security concentration on adverse selection costs and liquidity: an examination of exchange traded funds

We examine the determinants of liquidity and adverse selection costs in a sample of basket securities. Using Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), we find evidence that adverse selection costs are decreasing in the number of equities held in the underlying portfolio, but adverse selection costs do not increase as the concentration among the securities increases. We find no evidence that industry concentration increases basket security adverse selection costs or reduces liquidity. We also document significantly lower levels of adverse selection costs in ETFs versus a matched sample of equities. In addition, ETFs have quoted dollar depth that is 35 times larger than a matched sample of equities, but ETFs also have higher effective and quoted spreads. However, when considering spreads and depth in a single metric, ETFs have significantly higher levels of liquidity.     

Value-Driving Activities in Euro-Zone Banks

We develop and test accounting-based valuation models for commercial banks. We extend Begley et al.'s framework (2006) and propose a valuation model where goodwill is generated by virtually all commercial and investment banking activities. Key features of our model are: the development of a relation between future cash flows from fee income and the bank value that depends on lending, borrowing and off-balance sheet business; and the inclusion of proprietary investment and trading as value-driving activities. Empirical tests on a sample of Euro-zone banks from 1998 to 2006 provide the following evidence. Unrealised expected cash flows from fee income are the most important source of unrecorded goodwill. This is consistent with the increasing importance of revenue from the sale of financial services to banks' income. The contribution of fee income to goodwill is higher for banks with large deposits and new loans. Equity securities are a source of unrecorded goodwill, but the introduction of fair value accounting, with the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), reduces their valuation role. Yet equity securities remain positively associated with unrecorded goodwill after IFRS adoption, suggesting that the fair value standards do not fully capture market expectations about future cash flows of investment assets.     

Seller Financing of Consumer Durables

Sellers of consumer durables often provide financing to customers. This paper shows that when customers desire consumption smoothing and when financial markets are imperfect, a seller can find it optimal to offer a menu of deferred-payment plans. A monopolist seller price discriminates among customers with different intertemporal income profiles by making such menu offers, and the interest rate on the seller credit can be significantly lower than the market borrowing rate. Seller financing can be an equilibrium outcome in a game where sellers and banks with market power choose payment plans and interest rates strategically.     

Supplier perceived value: Differences between business-to-business and business-to-government relationships

This research investigates suppliers’ perceptions of value and compares business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) relationships. This paper highlights that suppliers perceive greater value benefits from their business customers than their government customers. The volume of sales in both B2B and B2G relationships impacts perceived value. In B2G relationships, information exchange on how to do business had the largest significant influence on perceived value. The implication for suppliers is that they need to consider which relationships offer them better value and then allocate resources towards those relationships, which in this case are their business customers. The implication for government procurement managers is that their methods of dealing with suppliers is putting them at a disadvantage when compared with businesses which may be competing for supply.     

转换成本、网络规模与信用卡产业竞争策略比较

近年来，我国信用卡产业呈现出市场集中度逐年下降的趋势。信用卡市场的竞争融合了网络效应、兼容性及转换成本等因素，而在兼容性一定的环境下，不同银行的竞争策略往往不同。本文通过防降价均衡模型估计出2010—2012年我国九家上市银行的信用卡转换成本，并对网络规模扩张、转换成本定位以及竞争成效等进行分组比较。结果表明，股份制商业银行利用较低的转换成本吸引新客户，实现了更高的业务规模增长率；四大国有商业银行则利用高转换成本锁定其已有客户，并以高速扩张网络规模来竞争新客户，使其同股份制商业银行的业务规模增长率差异逐年下降。这说明网络产业中不同市场地位的厂商可将转换成本定位与网络规模扩张作为差异化策略，以此实现竞争优势。     

商业银行基于客户价值的客户识别模型研究

现代商业银行已经认识到客户是企业的重要资源,成功地获得有价值的新客户和维系高价值客户是至关重要的。但目前,空前巨大的客户数据量使得准确识别有价值的个体客户变得复杂和难以有效实施。文中利用数据挖掘技术,抽取建立商业银行基于客户价值的客户识别模型所需要的知识,建立了一个考察客户目前价值、潜在价值和忠诚度的客户价值模型;并以此模型为基础进行客户识别与分割。此外,根据某商业银行的客户样本进行实例研究,划分出8个客户细分市场,根据每一细分市场的特点设计了简单的营销策略。     

Value-at-Risk (VaR) Computations Under Various VaR Models and Stress Testing

SUMMARY

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) proposes that all banks calculate and report amount of market risk they incur and allocate sufficient amount of capital starting at the beginning of year 2002. BIS also suggests that value-at-risk (VaR) models in computing market risk should be used. The Turkish Bank Regulation and Supervision Agency already required all Turkish banks to compute and periodically report market risk and reserve adequate amount of capital since January, 2002. This study mimics an average trading marketable securities portfolio subject to market risk of the four largest Turkish banks. The publicly available quarterly financial reports of year 2001 for Isbank, Garanti, Yapi Kredi and Akbank are examined, and a mimicking portfolio composition is determined as bond investments; 60% in Turkish currency (TRL), 20% in American dollar (USD) and 20%in Euro (EUR). The VaR amounts of the mimicking portfolio are computed by applying Historical Simulation, Monte Carlo Simulation, Delta-Normal and Standard Methods. Finally, stress test is applied for each of the models by using crisis scenarios. The Turkish financial crises of November 2000 and February 2001 are simulated as stress scenarios. The results of stress testing reveal that all methods except standard method can stand the crisis in November 2000, but none of the models can stand the crisis in February 2001.     

金融行业间的资产风险外溢影响

银行业、保险业和证券业因投资业务而构建起联系，并基于金融资产价格而具有了传染渠道。随着投资活动愈发频繁，金融行业中各行业内部的资产风险可能外溢至其他行业。本文首先从理论上分析金融行业资产风险通过投资资产外溢的过程，通过搭建资产抛售模型模拟资产风险的传染机制，从机构层面和行业层面分析资产风险的生成与传递。其次，基于金融机构实际数据的模拟分析结果显示，四大国有商业银行和中国平安具有外溢风险的能力，首先影响银行和保险公司，随后再扩散到整个金融行业，而证券业则相对较为独立。银行业的外溢影响最大，其次是保险业和证券业。但事实上很难发生足以对外部造成显著影响的损失事件。资产、投资比例、杠杆和监管要求水平在资产风险外溢的过程中具有一定的影响。     

The future of the dollar–euro exchange rate

Monetary unification in Europe is expected to produce a major new international currency, which may compete with the U.S. dollar as the currency of choice in foreign exchange transactions, financial asset markets and central bank reserves. This study considers two important issues regarding the euro: its global role as medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value and its position relative to the U.S. dollar. Among the main considerations are differences in cyclical behavior, inflation differentials, trade patterns and capital flows, and risk-return assessments. External diversification of private portfolios and of central banks’ reserve holdings will play a key role in determining the euro’s exchange rate. Overall, despite its rough start, we argue that the euro may emerge as a challenger to the U.S. dollar.     

Determinants of bank interest margins in Central and Eastern Europe: A comparison with the West

We investigate the determinants of bank interest margins in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). We assess to what extent the relatively high bank margins in CEEC can be attributed to low efficiency or non-competitive market conditions, controlling for the macroeconomic environment and the influence of foreign and state-owned banks. We systematically compare CEEC banks with Western European banks. Our results indicate that banking in the CEEC is on a virtuous path, at least in the EU accession countries: Increased efficiency benefits customers, while capital adequacy supports systemic stability. In the non-accession countries, important policy actions are required.     

How can firms access bank finance for circular business model innovation?

Access to bank finance has emerged as a key challenge for firms engaged in circular business model innovation (circular BMI), both in practice and in the academic literature. Through interviews, focus groups and archival documents, we document the experience of firms accessing finance for circular BMI and assess bank willingness to lend to firms that engage in circular BMI. Our findings offer potential strategies for firms who look for external (bank) finance to realise circular BMI. Using a case study-based theory-refining approach, we identify three core strategies that firms can use to obtain bank finance for circular BMI. First, firms can signal future cash flow expectations by aiming to secure customer contracts and preorders. Second, relationship building with banks, suppliers and customers improves the banks' risk perception of firms. Third, firms can design standardised, long-lasting circular assets that can serve as bank collateral, especially once secondary markets develop, overcoming the difficulty of lending based on innovative, firm-specific assets.     

Integrated financial supervision: Which model?

Integrated agencies supervising banks, nonbank financial institutions, and securities markets have been gaining popularity around the globe. Using a unique data set on compliance with international standards in 84 countries, we find that greater supervisory integration is associated with higher quality of insurance and securities supervision and greater consistency of supervision across sectors. Within the different forms of integration, we find some support for the “twin peaks” model that integrates supervision across sectors but separates business conduct and prudential supervision. We also find that whether supervision is located inside or outside the central bank has no significant relation to supervisory quality.     

Personalized Pricing and Quality Customization

We embed the principal–agent model in a model of spatial differentiation with correlated consumer preferences to investigate the competitive implications of personalized pricing and quality allocation (PPQ), whereby duopoly firms charge different prices and offer different qualities to different consumers, based on their willingness to pay. Our model sheds light on the equilibrium product-line pricing and quality schedules offered by firms, given that none, one, or both firms implement PPQ. The adoption of PPQ has three effects in our model: it enables firms to extract higher rents from loyal customers, intensifies price competition for nonloyal customers, and eliminates cannibalization from customer self-selection. Contrary to prior literature on one-to-one marketing and price discrimination, we show that even symmetric firms can avoid the well-known Prisoner's Dilemma problem when they engage in personalized pricing and quality customization. When both firms have PPQ, consumer surplus is nonmonotonic in valuations such that some low-valuation consumers get higher surplus than high-valuation consumers. The adoption of PPQ can reduce information asymmetry, and therefore sellers offer higher-quality products after the adoption of PPQ. Overall, we find that while the simultaneous adoption of PPQ generally improves total social welfare and firm profits, it decreases total consumer surplus.     

Cartel Detection in Procurement Markets

Cartel detection is usually viewed as a key task of either competition authorities or compliance officials in firms with an elevated risk of cartelization. We argue that customers of hard‐core cartels can have both incentives and possibilities to detect such agreements on their own initiative through the use of market‐specific datasets. We apply a unique dataset of about 340,000 market transactions from 36 smaller and larger customers of German cement producers and show that a price screen would have allowed particularly larger customers to detect the upstream cement cartel before the competition authority. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

我国金融控股银行与非金融控股银行经营绩效比较研究

在受金融自由化改革和金融创新的推动下,混业经营在金融一体化下成为一种趋势。我国商业银行通过组建金融控股公司,已广泛开展保险、信托、证券、基金等业务间合作。本文以我国主要商业银行2005年至2007年的业绩表现为研究对象,对其进行了研究,结果表明:我国金融控股公司背景银行的经营绩效好于非金融控股公司背景银行,金控银行的手续费及佣金收入对绩效有更高的贡献率,我国应鼓励商业银行向金融控股公司转型,实现金控模式的规范发展。     

Tit for tat in small steps: the internationalization of Swedish banks

Earlier studies of the internationalization of manufacturing firms have shown that they tend to start their foreign operations in countries that are culturally close to their own and then gradually move to more alien ground. If banks follow their customers abroad, we would expect their internationalization to assume a similar pattern. Their penetration of foreign markets could also be expected to be related to direct foreign investments and exports. An empirical test in the case of major Swedish banks did not support this hypothesis. Instead these banks tended to concentrate their internationalization efforts to important financial centres. Thus they have not only chosen to establish themselves in places where many international banks are already working, but they have also tended to follow each other in a pattern of tit for tat. The nature of this process supports the idea suggested in earlier studies that internationalization is generally a gradual process, starting with minor commitments which are developed over time.     

商业银行个人客户满意度影响因素的实证分析

随着竞争的加剧、金融管制的放松和信息技术的发展,对客户需求的满足能力是商业银行可持续发展的关键所在。本文采用定性与定量的研究方法,分析了影响个人客户满意程度的因素。研究结果表明:银行的服务、银行的形象、银行提供的金融产品及银行营业网点的便利性,是影响个人客户满意程度的主要因素。在此基础上,比较了国内五家商业银行在这些重要因素上的表现,并提出了提高银行个人客户满意程度的相关建议。     

美国投资银行管理标准化问题研究

美国投资银行在长期的发展中形成了比较成熟的管理模式,其组织形式、治理结构、激励约束机制等逐步趋向于标准化。本文以激励约束机制为主线,分析了美国投资银行组织形式的演变、治理结构的最新发展以及薪酬制度的结构与水平等内容,对我国证券公司的管理和发展具有重要的借鉴价值。