Dealing with bank system failure: Indonesia, 1997–2003

Indonesia's crisis recovery program has failed badly in relation to the two key objectives of development economics policy making: efficiency and equity. The economy went into severe recession within a few months of the IMF appearing on the scene, and six years later output was little higher than before the crisis. The collapse of the banking system and the associated government bailout of depositors has imposed a loss on the public of at least 40% of GDP. This paper describes that collapse and the government's policy response to it, under advice from the IMF. It goes on to propose an alternative scheme that might have been followed—and that could be followed in future banking crises. Its twin objectives are to maintain the integrity of the payments system and to avoid inequitable wealth transfers that result from government bailouts of banks and their depositors.     

Insolvency Reform and the Indonesian Financial Crisis

Treatments of Indonesia's financial crisis customarily focus on exchange rate collapse, neglecting the question of why enterprises were so highly leveraged beforehand. This article reviews controlling shareholder-debtor behaviour both before and during the crisis. It then examines Indonesia's emergency bankruptcy legislation effective August 1998—which enjoys a mixed record in implementation—and articulates bankruptcy policy principles for the replacement legislation now being drafted. Progress on the insolvency front has been limited to a relatively small number of voluntary debt reorganisations. Early indications are that such restructurings largely take the form of debt rescheduling rather than debt-equity swaps, loan write-offs, or other approaches that would lessen enterprises' heavy leveraging. This outcome reflects problems in creditor as well as debtor preferences. What began as a private sector insolvency problem increasingly overlaps with efforts to address general banking sector difficulties. Further, nationalism questions complicate the resolution of insolvencies.     

The evolution of commercial banking and financial markets in Taiwan

Over the past five decades, Taiwan has achieved rapid economic development. Correspondingly, Taiwan’s financial system has been gradually transformed from a controlled system into a liberalized one, from a state banking system into a private banking one, and from an inward investment system into an outward investment one. In the financial market, the interest rate and foreign exchange rate have always been completely determined by market forces. As for capital movements, there are no controls on trade-related capital transactions. Only inward investment in stock markets is still subject to a ceiling imposed by the Central Bank. Financial institutions are gradually being liberalized, although the process is rather slow. Many private banks have been established since 1991, creating a competitive situation in the banking sector. Since the financial crisis broke out in East Asia, Taiwan has suffered less from its impact because its economic fundamentals are comparatively sound. However, it will still take a considerable amount of time before Taiwan’s financial system is fully liberalized.     

Risks,Resilience, and Reforms: Indonesia’s Financial System in 2019

Indonesia has managed the complex challenges of the global economy well. The country's capital outflows were smaller in 2018 than during the Taper Tantrum in 2013; the rupiah had regained most of its lost ground by January 2019; the Indonesian stock market has outperformed its peers; growth is forecast to remain stable; inflation is low; unemployment remains below its five-year average; consumer and business confidence are robust; and the government budget has improved through a smaller deficit and cheaper borrowing costs. But significant risks remain. This paper assesses these risks and evaluates the adequacy of Indonesia's crisis management framework. It finds that the framework has serious deficiencies that could see liquidity challenges become systemic solvency crises. The framework effectively removes Bank Indonesia as the lender of last resort, risks politicising the process of crisis response, and could mean slower, less effective responses to crises. This paper explores how the framework could be improved and what reforms could be undertaken to deepen Indonesia's financial system, strengthen financial resilience, and boost the long-term growth outlook.     

Shadow banking activities of non-financial companies and the information content of stock prices

In recent years, corporate investment rate has been declining, and they have been allocating financial capital to the shadow credit market, which lead to accumulation of financial risks. Based on the annual data of non-financial listed companies from 2007 to 2019, this paper explores the impact of non-financial companies’ shadow banking on the information content of stock prices. Results show that shadow banking of non-financial enterprises reduce the information content of stock price, and the above effects are more significant in regions with lower social trust and higher policy uncertainty, private enterprises, and enterprises without political connection. Enterprises engage in shadow banking can impact idiosyncratic information content of stock price through channels of earning management, irrational investor behavior, creditor risk concerns and informed trading; Analysts over-optimism and insider trading can also have an impact on the relationship between shadow banking activities and synchronization of stock price. This paper analyzes economic consequences of non-financial enterprises’ shadow banking activities, thus providing important theoretical support and policy guidance for enhancing signal mechanism of securities market, improving capital market efficiency of resource allocation, deepening financial market-oriented reforms.     

Does Nuclear Uncertainty Threaten Financial Markets? The Attention Paid to North Korean Nuclear Threats and Its Impact on South Korea's Financial Markets

We explore how investor attention paid to dangerous nuclear tests influences financial market outcomes. To measure the attention paid to North Korean nuclear threats, we introduce a weekly Google search volume index for keywords on North Korean nuclear events. Using a time‐varying structural vector autoregression model with block exogeneity restrictions, we find that investor attention paid to nuclear threats has heterogeneous effects on South Korea's stock prices across industries and over time: attention on only the first nuclear test was negatively related to the stock price index, which vanished thereafter. Moreover, the investor attention paid to the nuclear risk reduced stock prices, especially in the banking industry, during the entire sample period.     

Understanding the Growth of African Financial Markets*

Abstract: This paper examines empirically the determinants of financial market development in Africa with an emphasis on banking systems and stock markets. The results show that income level, creditor rights protection, financial repression, and political risk are the main determinants of banking sector development in Africa, and that stock market liquidity, domestic savings, banking sector development, and political risk are the main determinants of stock market development. We also find that liberalizing the capital account promotes financial market development only in countries with high incomes, well‐developed institutions, or both. The powerful impacts of political risk on both banking sector and stock market development suggest that resolution of political risk may be important to the development of African financial markets.     

浅析中国证券市场多层次发展的逻辑思路

我国资本市场上只有上海和深圳两个交易所,上市公司类型、交易品种都很少,这远不能满足各类企业的融资需求。借鉴国外成熟的资本市场发展经验,结合我国的国情,笔者认为构建多层次的证券市场体系应包括全国性一元化的证券交易所、创业板市场、区域性证券交易市场和产权交易市场四部分。每个市场针对不同的投资者和资金需求者,安排不同的上市标准、运作模式和监管方式,这些子市场相互补充、相互竞争、相互衔接,共同构成完整统一的证券市场体系。     

India and Indonesia: Lessons Learned from the 2013 Taper Tantrum

In May 2013, the US Federal Reserve began to talk about the possibility of ending its program of quantitative easing. This tapering talk had a significant impact on five main emerging-market countries—Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey (the ‘Fragile Five’)—whose exchange rates weakened dramatically and whose stock and bond markets were hit hard. This series of events is now known as the ‘taper tantrum’. In response to the tantrum, these five countries each took a series of macroeconomic policy measures to relieve pressure in their financial markets. Indonesia and India handled the problem in the shortest time (about seven months) and achieved macro-economic stabilisation. This article examines how Indonesia and India managed to remain relatively unscathed by the taper tantrum and escape the Fragile Five. It looks at which policies the two countries adopted at the time, and why they chose them, as well as why India's economy performed better than Indonesia's after the tantrum.     

China＇s Stock Market： Inefficiencies and Institutional Implications

The dramatic movements of China＇s stock market in the past two and a half years have renewed debate among academics over the efficiency of China＇s stock market. The present paper tests the efficiency of China＇ s stock market. The realization of efficient markets requires the effective operation of a complete set of macro and micro mechanisms. However, such mechanisms are not only incomplete in China＇ s stock market, but are also ineffective because of the prevalence of institutional deficiencies.     

International bimetallism and silver absorption in Singapore, 1840–73

This study reveals the mechanism underlying the silver trade in Singapore during the third quarter of the nineteenth century by analysing banking business and bullion arbitrage. After 1849, the California Gold Rush induced gold depreciation and silver appreciation in Singapore's bullion market, and arbitrage profits for silver imports from Britain emerged. At the same time, the expansion of banking business by eastern exchange banks enhanced the connectivity of Singapore's exchange market with London, and enabled bullion arbitrage between the two distant cities. As a result, there was an influx of silver from Britain. In addition, Dutch silver, which was exported to Java by the Netherlands after 1854, flowed into Singapore due to the unfavourable exchange policy of the Dutch government.     

跨境资本流动对银行风险的影响--基于风险累积效应和风险传染效应的视角

从风险累积效应和风险传染效应两个视角揭示跨境资本流动对银行风险的影响机理,并基于2000年第一季度至2020年第四季度时间序列数据进行经验检验,结果表明:跨境资本流动、跨境资本流入、跨境资本流出均显著增加了银行风险,且三者对银行风险的影响均存在显著的风险累积效应;跨境资本流动、跨境资本流入、跨境资本流出均通过影响金融机构人民币各项贷款余额同比增速、金融机构外币各项贷款余额同比增速、金融机构本外币各项贷款余额同比增速以及境内住户中长期消费贷款同比增速等信贷渠道显著提高银行风险承担水平,实现银行风险累积,从而增加银行风险;跨境资本流动、跨境资本流入、跨境资本流出均显著提高了股票价格、房地产价格和实际汇率的波动水平,且跨境资本流动通过股票市场、房地产市场和汇率市场将波动水平传染至银行系统,增加了银行风险,股票市场、房地产市场和汇率市场更是强化了这种传染效应。     

多维视角下的中国银行业结构改革设计

从金融系统、配置效率、生产效率、中小企业融资和金融稳定等多维角度考察银行结构,理论和实证层面都没有具有说服力的理由表明相对分散型的银行市场结构比集中性的结构更有优势:相反,从金融系统的配置规则、效率优势和金融稳定优势等因素判断,集中的银行市场结构可能更为可取,而且从长远来看有利于中小企业融资。因此,保持相对集中才是中国银行业市场结构的合理取向。     

Transforming Central Bank Liabilities into Government Debt: The Case of China

Where policy has substantially increased central bank assets, the corresponding liabilities present an opportunity to increase the breadth, depth and liquidity of the government bond market. In China's case, transformed illiquid central bank liabilities could double or triple the stock of government bonds. Central bank liabilities can be transformed into government bonds either through the government's purchase of foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank or by the government overfunding its borrowing requirement and depositing the proceeds in the central bank. The overfunding approach is preferred if, for financial stability reasons, it is judged prudent to leave the central bank with sufficient resources to serve itself as lender of last resort in foreign currency to the banking system. In the case of China, public debt consolidation could also contribute to further liberalizing the Chinese banking system, wider international use of the renminbi and more balanced holdings of key currency government bonds.     

Bank Indonesia and The Recent Crisis

This paper is a personal note describing the crisis as it unfolded while the writer was a key player in Indonesia's macroeconomic management. The crisis is seen as multi-faceted. It originated externally from a shock in the currency market that triggered a downward spiral from currency depreciation to fully-fledged crisis. The currency shock that hit the rupiah in July 1997 exposed in sequence the flaws embedded in the banking sector, the economic system, the social and the political system, flaws that had been obscured by long years of good economic performance. Through a complicated process of contagion and feedback effects—market disturbances, policy responses and market reactions—Indonesia deteriorated from a relatively well managed economy to the “worst case” among the Asian crisis economies. The paper discusses this process, the IMF's role, the bank closure issue, the currency board controversy and the author's dismissal as Governor of Bank Indonesia.     

Financial Liberalization and Stock Market Efficiency: Causality Analysis of Emerging Markets

This paper studies the long- and short-run relationship between financial liberalization and stock market efficiency. It expands the extant body of knowledge by investigating Granger causality relationship applying mean group, common correlated effect mean group and common correlated effect pooled estimator to balanced panel data for 27 emerging markets over the period 1996–2011. We find evidence of financial liberalization Granger causes stock market efficiency, which is consistent with liberalization leads to efficiency hypothesis. Subsequently, our work makes a fresh contribution to the literature by focusing on informational efficiency of stock markets rather than financial development. Furthermore, we find that a negative long-term relationship between financial liberalization and stock return autocorrelation coexists with a positive short-term relationship between the two. The findings that financial liberalization, which has a deteriorated effect on stock market efficiency in the short-run, but positive impact in the long-run, allow us to draw an analogy similar to the J-curve hypothesis.     

United States Demand for Indonesian Plywood 1

Indonesia's exports of plywood are the largest in the world and a leading source of foreign exchange earnings. Although the industry's growth has been rapid, several studies indicate that it has been subsidised both directly and indirectly. What are the prospects for Indonesia to offset these subsidies by raising plywood prices as its share of key import markets grows? This paper sheds light on this question by analyzing econometrically the United States' imports of Indonesian plywood from July 1979 to December 1986, using a monthly import demand model. The results suggest that Indonesia's rapid expansion into the US plywood market has been due primarily to its low plywood prices, and that attempts to raise prices relative to those of competing export regions would result in significant reductions in market share.     

Competition in Turkish Banking: Impacts of Restructuring and the Global Financial Crisis

This paper investigates the evolution of competition in the Turkish banking industry by taking into account the transformation in the sector in the aftermath of the country's financial crisis of 2000 to 2001 and the global financial crisis. The results demonstrate that the level of competition in the system did not increase despite the restructuring that was undertaken and the increased foreign bank participation. In addition, the level of competition in the sector deteriorated during the global crisis. There is also some evidence that the market power of banks with different ownership characteristics varied and did not converge over time.     

实体经济杠杆率、影子银行规模与系统性金融风险——基于TVP-VAR模型的实证研究

防范系统性金融风险、维持金融体系的稳定是中国经济工作的重中之重.通过时变参数向量自回归模型(TVP-VAR)分析实体经济杠杆率、影子银行规模对系统性金融风险的时变影响.研究发现,实体经济杠杆率与影子银行规模之间存在相互促进的关系,并且两者对系统性金融风险的冲击响应具有时变性和实滞效应.鉴于此,应加强实体经济部门去杠杆、影子银行监管,注重各金融风险防范政策之间的联动反应,以维护金融体系的稳定.     

The State and the finance sector: the evolution of regulatory apparatus

This paper seeks to explain the motivation for the growth of regulation of the Australian financial sector and banking in particular. It will be argued that the pace and direction of the growth of the regulatory apparatus from the 1930s until the 1980s was set by concerns of governments about macro–economic issues rather than issues affecting the financial sector per se. The drivers of regulatory change over the last two decades of the century reflect new concerns about the efficiency and underlying stability of financial markets, and equity issues.