Credit ratings and social capital

We posit that credit ratings are higher for firms headquartered in high social capital regions, where managers are more likely to be trustworthy. To test this hypothesis, 9460 corporate debt ratings of US firms from 2001– 2015 was examined. We find that firms headquartered in a county with high social capital in the US have a higher credit rating. This effect is incremental and economically comparable to that of corporate social responsibility. Additional tests suggest that the impact of social capital on ratings is likely because analysts find them more credible. We conclude that credit analysts may consider the social norm around the firm's headquarters when rating firms.     

Asset correlations and bank capital adequacy

This paper addresses the estimation of confidence sets for asset correlations used in credit risk portfolio models. Research on the estimation of asset correlations using endogenous probabilities of default estimations has focused on the impact of concentration risk factors, such as firm size and industry. The empirical evidence from Italian small- and medium-size companies show that the assumptions underlying the Basel Committee regulatory capital risk weight function are not substantiated. The regulatory impact is that the capital adequacy is significantly compromised, driving an adverse selection, which favors the worst companies, and transferring the procyclical effects from firms to banks.     

An analysis of the determinants of sovereign ratings

In recent years, the demand for sovereign ratings has increased mainly due to the inevitable globalisation of markets. This study analyses the quantitative determinants of sovereign ratings provided by the two main agencies, namely, Standard and Poors and Moody. The analysis also provides a forecast of the ratings to be assigned to the countries based on the model used as well as providing ratings to be assigned to a set of weaker economies which are not actually rated by the rating agencies. The main finding of the paper is that current economic and financial indicators alone do not determine ratings. In addition, the relevance of economic variables is not the same across the different rating categories. Economic variables do not carry the same importance for the sample of high rated countries with a long financial stability history as compared to the low rated sample of countries that are still undergoing structural changes.     

The impact of bank ownership concentration on impaired loans and capital adequacy

This paper examines the impact of bank ownership concentration on two indicators of bank riskiness, namely banks’ non-performing loans and capital adequacy. Using balance sheet information for around 500 commercial banks from more than 50 countries averaged over 2005–2007, we find that concentrated ownership (proxied by different levels of shareholding) significantly reduces a bank’s non-performing loans ratio, conditional on supervisory control and shareholders protection rights. Furthermore, ownership concentration affects the capital adequacy ratio positively conditional on shareholder protection. At low levels of shareholder protection rights and supervisory control, ownership concentration reduces bank riskiness.     

资本充足率约束与我国商业银行经营转型的关联性分析

对于商业银行资本充足率的构成、影响因素、解决资本充足率不足的途径等问题,国内外很多学者已经进行了研究,其中,对于影响因素的研究,尤其成为20世纪90年代以来的银行业研究的热点问题。本文着重分析资本充足率约束与我国商业银行经营转型之间的内在逻辑关系,借助计量经济学模型方法,对近年来,资本充足率约束与我国部分股份制商业银行经营状况之间的关系进行了实证研究,结果显示,巴塞尔协议中的资本充足率约束已开始对我国的商业银行的经营发挥效应。     

The effect of capital adequacy guidelines on large bank holding companies

The United States federal bank regulators imposed numerical capital guidelines in 1981. If these guidelines are binding on bank holding companies, then theoretical evidence suggests that banking organizations may be increasing asset risk. This study tests empirically the hypothesis that the guidelines are binding. Two models of changes in bank holding company equity capital to assets ratios are developed and tested using maximum likehood estimation: a regulatory model and a market model. The results indicate that most large bank holding companies are influenced by regulatory forces.     

An analysis of VaR-based capital requirements

We study the behavior of a financial institution subject to capital requirements based on self-reported VaR measures, as in the Basel Committee's Internal Models Approach. We view these capital requirements and the associated backtesting procedure as a mechanism designed to induce financial institutions to reveal the risk of their investments and to support this risk with adequate levels of capital. Accordingly, we consider the simultaneous choice of an optimal dynamic reporting and investment strategy. Overall, we find that VaR-based capital requirements can be very effective not only in curbing portfolio risk but also in inducing revelation of this risk.     

Interest rate liberalization and capital adequacy in models of financial crises

We characterize the effects of interest rate liberalization on OECD banking crises, controlling for the standard macro prudential variables that prevail in the current literature. We use the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World database. We test for the direct impacts of interest rate liberalization on crisis probabilities and their indirect effects via capital adequacy. Over the period 1980–2012, we find that interest rate liberalization has a crises reducing effect, and it appears that the beneficial effects work by strengthening capital buffers. We also show that when controlling for liberalization, capital adequacy and liquidity, the main driver of financial crises is property price growth. Our results are invariant when we control for alternative sensitivity tests for robustness purposes.     

An analysis of working capital efficiency and shareholder return

Since 1997, CFO Magazine has published a ranking of 1000 companies in its “Working Capital Scorecard.” Our research explores the question as to whether working capital management practices based on the accounting metrics used by CFO Magazine serve as a basis for investor-based strategies for superior return generation. We examine the stock performance of top ranked companies from 1997 to 2012 against benchmark portfolios. Controlling for market, market capitalization, book to market, momentum factors, liquidity factors, and corporate governance; the higher ranked firms produce statistically higher excess returns than bottom ranked firms. In bull market periods, firms with superior working capital management outperformed their counterparts on a raw and risk-adjusted basis. These top ranked firms also provide statistically significant active returns regardless of market cycle. In sum, our results indicate that shareholders reward firms with superior working capital management strategies with higher raw and risk-adjusted performance over longer holding periods across the economic cycle especially in bear markets cycles.     

Human capital,capital structure,and employee pay: An empirical analysis

We test the predictions of Titman (1984) and Berk, Stanton, and Zechner (2010) by examining the effect of leverage on labor costs. Leverage has a significantly positive impact on cash, equity-based, and total compensation of chief executive officers (CEOs). Compensation of new CEOs hired from outside the firm is positively related to prior-year firm leverage. In addition, leverage has a positive and significant impact on average employee pay. The incremental total labor expenses associated with an increase in leverage are large enough to offset the incremental tax benefits of debt. The empirical evidence supports the theoretical prediction that labor costs limit the use of debt.     

The implications of the new capital adequacy rules for portfolio management of credit assets

Over the past several years, there has been an extensive discussion among practitioners and academics about whether and how a portfolio management approach could help banks to better manage risk capital and create shareholder value. In this article, the authors argue that there are four key drivers which require banks to move from a transactional to a more portfolio management like approach when managing credit assets. These are: structural changes in the credit markets, inefficiencies of risk transfer in lending markets, ballooning debt levels in the US, and the proposed changes for capital adequacy. The authors see the latter not as a one-time change in capital adequacy rules, but more as a first step towards full convergence between risk capital and regulatory capital for credit risk. These changes require banks to accelerate their efforts to build first class portfolio management skills and capabilities. Achieving best practice credit portfolio management is rewarded with attractive opportunities for shareholder value creation and enables bank to successfully compete going forward.     

The effectiveness of bank capital adequacy regulation: A theoretical and empirical approach

The aim of this paper is to analyse how banking firms set their capital ratios, that is, the rate of equity capital over assets. In order to study this issue, two theoretical models are developed. Both models demonstrate the existence of an optimal capital ratio; the first one for firms not affected by capital adequacy regulation, the second one for firms which are. The models have been tested by estimating a disequilibrium model using data from Spanish commercial banks.     

Differential default risk among traditional and non-traditional mortgage products and capital adequacy standards

We develop a framework to quantify credit risks of non-traditional mortgage products (NMPs). Ex ante probabilities of default are caused by willingness-to-pay and ability-to-pay problems and the high default rates for NMPs confirm that payment shock is a critical default risk indicator. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted using three correlated stochastic variables (mortgage interest rate, home price, and household income) under normal and stressed economies. Results confirm that the default risk of 2/28 and option ARM contracts requiring a minimum monthly interest payment have a greater probability of default than other mortgage products in all economic scenarios. Additionally, the credit risk of NMPs is primarily systematic risk, suggesting that these products should require higher risk-based capital. Due to the non-linear distribution of credit risk, even the advanced internal-based rating approach of the Basle II framework can understate the risk involved in these NMPs.     

Systemic risk,macroprudential policy frameworks,monitoring financial systems and the evolution of capital adequacy

This paper analyses various issues that need to be tackled when promoting financial stability, reviewing the progress made in certain key areas and the remaining challenges. It explores the measurement of systemic risk and of individual institutions’ contribution to it. It discusses aspects of macroprudential frameworks, including how the countercyclical capital buffer envisaged in Basel III takes into account the properties of the financial cycle and the strengths and weaknesses of macro-stress tests. It analyses some of the challenges of how best to monitor financial systems and the broader economy in order to detect signs of vulnerability that might lead to future bouts of financial instability and of how to set prudential policy accordingly. And it discusses the evolution of capital adequacy standards and the new emphasis on liquidity standards in international regulation.     

The role of credit ratings on capital structure and its speed of adjustment: an international study

Using an international dataset, we examine the role of issuers’ credit ratings in explaining corporate leverage and the speed with which firms adjust toward their optimal level of leverage. We find that, in countries with a more market-oriented financial system, the impact of credit ratings on firms’ capital structure is more significant and that firms with a poorer credit rating adjust more rapidly. Furthermore, our results show some striking differences in the speed of adjusting capital structure between firms rated as speculative and investment grade, with the former adjusting much more rapidly. As hypothesized, those differences are statistically significant only for firms based in a more market-oriented economy.     

Theoretical perspectives on intellectual capital: A backward look and a proposal for going forward

In recent years the intellectual capital literature has exhibited relatively few new theoretical contributions, in contrast to the flurry of such work in the period 1996-2003. The purpose of the present paper is to revisit a number of the major theoretical contributions to the intellectual capital field in order to identify where any renewal of theoretical endeavour might be targeted. The greater part of the existing theoretical corpus is found to have a normative quality, something particularly evident in policy-oriented contributions on accounting for intellectual capital. The continued absence of a critical perspective on intellectual capital is identified to be a worrying lacuna, and thereby a potentially valuable space for a further round of theoretical activity.     

Basel-2 capital adequacy: Computing the ‘fair’ capital charge for loan commitment ‘true’ credit risk

This research makes two contributions: (i) to price analytically put option and extension premium embedded in a borrower-extendible commitment, and (ii) to compute the ‘fair’ capital charge that corresponds to the commitment ‘true’ credit risk. In doing so, the procedure replaces the BIS accounting-based concepts of credit-conversion factor, principal-risk factor, and initial term to maturity of irrevocable commitments with the market-based concepts of exercise-cum-takedown proportion and put value implicit in the borrower-extendible commitment, respectively. Finally, the approach is developed one step further to account for the borrowers' risk ratings by public credit agencies; this results in a two-dimensional (time-state of nature) risk-weighting system that applies to all commitment types.