The effect of mergers on credit union performance

The motivation for mergers in the credit union industry differs from the commercial bank industry due to the lack of residual claimants to benefit from wealth gains. In the cooperative ownership environment of credit unions, the owners/members gain utility via the rates offered for loans and deposits. Credit union regulators also gain utility when mergers remove risky credit unions from the industry. We measure these utility gains using the event study method of Bauer [Bauer, K., 2008. Detecting abnormal credit union performance. Journal of Banking and Finance 32, 573–586] employing quadrant tests based on a multivariate test of equality of centroids. We find gains to the owners/members of the target credit union and to the regulators but not to the acquiring firm. We posit that the acquiring credit unions may encounter regulatory pressure to merge. In addition, the owners/members of the acquiring firm may avoid potential disutility in the cooperative insurance environment were the target firm allowed to fail.     

A statistical analysis of the impact of monetary policy on credit union lending

In this paper, a polynomial distributed lag regression model has been employed to determine the responsiveness of credit union consumer installment lending to changes in monetary policy. Estimation of the model leads to the following conclusions: (a) the model provides an adequate statistical representation of credit union reaction to monetary policy, (b) over time, credit union lending behavior has come to react more quickly to changes in monetary policy, and (c) over time, the degree, or strength, of response of lending behaviour to changes in monetary policy has weakend. The model is also applied to commercial bank consumer installment lending with similar results.     

Detecting abnormal credit union performance

Credit unions are an important financial intermediary, but little credit union research is done. A primary reason for the lack of research is the cooperative nature of the industry, making traditional methods of detecting abnormal performance inappropriate. This paper proposes two methods of detecting abnormal performance, one parametric, the other non-parametric. Instead of testing the efficiency of the institution, this paper proposes testing the return vector, as indicated in the theoretical objective function of the member. Simulations demonstrate that both methods are correctly specified and powerful.     

The impact of credit rating announcements on credit default swap spreads

We document the ability of the credit default swap (CDS) market to anticipate favorable as well as unfavorable credit rating change (RC) announcements based on more extensive samples of credit rating events and CDS spreads than previous studies. We obtain four new results. In contrast to prior published studies, we find that corporate RC upgrades do have a significant impact on CDS spreads even though they are still not as well anticipated as downgrades. Second, CreditWatch (CW) and Outlook (OL) announcements, after controlling for prior credit rating events, lead to significant CARs at the time positive CW and OL credit rating events are announced. Third, we extend prior results by showing that changes in CDS spreads for non-investment-grade credits contain information useful for estimating the probability of negative credit rating events. Fourth, we find that the CDS spread impact of upgrades but not downgrades is magnified during recessions and that upgrades and downgrades also differ as to the impact of simultaneous CW/OL announcements, investment-grade/speculative-grade crossovers, current credit rating, market volatility, and industry effects.     

The impact of European bank mergers on bidder default risk

We analyze the implications of European bank consolidation on the default risk of acquiring banks. For a sample of 134 bidding banks, we employ the Merton distance to default model to show that, on average, bank mergers are risk neutral. However, for relatively safe banks, mergers generate a significant increase in default risk. This result is particularly pronounced for cross-border and activity-diversifying deals as well as for deals completed under weak bank regulatory regimes. Also, large deals, which pose organizational and procedural hurdles, experience a merger-related increase in default risk. Our results cast doubt on the ability of bank merger activity to exert a risk-reducing and stabilizing effect on the European banking industry.     

Corporate social responsibility and provision of trade credit

In this article, we identify and examine three different views of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the relationship between CSR and firms’ provision of trade credit. The trust view of CSR argues that CSR and trade credit provision are related positively, because CSR, as a trust-enhancing device, complements the incomplete contract nature of trade credit. The CSR literature shows that CSR firms tend to have higher cash holdings. With this in mind, the precautionary motive view of CSR suggests that cash holdings serve as a hedge against trade credit risk, while, on the other hand, the substitution view of CSR predicts that cash hoarding discourages the provision of trade credit. Using a dataset of 20,591 firm-year observations from 1991 to 2015, we find strong evidence that supports both the trust and substitution views of CSR but not the precautionary view of CSR.     

The impact of securitization on the expansion of subprime credit

This paper investigates the relationship between securitization activity and the extension of subprime credit. The analysis is motivated by two sets of compelling empirical facts. First, the origination of subprime mortgages exploded between the years 2003 and 2005. Second, the securitization of subprime loans increased substantially over the same time period, driven primarily by the five largest independent broker/dealer investment banks. We argue that the relative shift in the securitization activity of investment banks was driven by forces exogenous to factors impacting lending decisions in the primary mortgage market and resulted in lower ZIP code denial rates, higher subprime origination rates, and higher subsequent default rates. Consistent with recent findings in the literature, we provide evidence that the increased securitization activity of investment banks reduced lenders' incentives to carefully screen borrowers.     

探究农村信用社信息化捷径

在农村信用社推进信息化，特别是要建立一个高水平的全省数据大集中的信息网络，形成现代化金融业务和管理信息平台，对于农村信用社这样一个手段很落后、历史包袱较重、管理相当薄弱、人员素质偏低、面临众多业务和管理难题的传统金融机构，无疑是一次革命性的升级，脱胎换骨的改造。     

The impact of securitization on credit rationing: Empirical evidence

We study whether banks’ involvement into different types of securitization activity – asset backed securities (ABS) and covered bonds – in Spain influences credit supply before and during the financial crisis. While both ABS and covered bonds were hit by the crisis, the former were hit more severely. Employing a disequilibrium model to identify credit rationing, we find that firms with banks that were more involved in securitization see their credit constraints more relaxed in normal periods. In contrast, only greater covered bonds issuance reduces credit rationing during crisis periods whereas ABS aggravates these firms’ credit rationing in crisis periods. Our results are in line with the theoretical predictions that a securitization instrument that retains risk (covered bond) may induce a more prudent risk behavior of banks than an instrument that provides risk transferring (ABS).     

农信信息化建设的探路者——访江西省农村信用社联合社信息网络中心总经理侯志红

江西省农村信用社联合社（简称“江西农信联社”）拥有2800个网点，数据大集中之前60％的网点都是单点单机，上线的业务也仅限于储蓄一项。这样的信息化水平远远难以满足数百万农民的需要，成为江西农村金融发展的瓶颈。面对如此迫切的需求，江西农信联社开展了省内数据大集中项目。2004年5月调研，2004年12月与合作企业签署合同启动项目，2005年8月即正式投产，同类金融机构花了几年、十几年走完的从微机到大集中的信息化历程，江西农信仅用了不足8个月的时间。     

构建信用卡服务体系提升整体服务能力

次贷危机给国际金融市场尤其是美国市场带来巨大冲击,然而美国富国银行(WELLS FARGO)在此次大危机中非但没有遭受巨大损失,反而表现卓越.很重要的一个原因是,当诸多金融机构在利润的诱惑下,向不具有偿付能力的客户发放贷款,鼓励客户去购买住房的时候,富国银行坚持从客户的角度出发,以是否能给客户带来利益作为贷款发放的重要标准之一,始终把客户的利益放在第一位,始终如一地在充分了解客户的基础上,为客户提供高品质的服务,才得以在危机中独善其身.     

The impact of firm ownership,board monitoring on operating performance of Chinese mergers and acquisitions

In this paper, we employ board monitoring mechanisms and within-firm governance variables to investigate the operating performance of 340 mergers and acquisitions in China over the 2004–2011 period. Our results document a significant deterioration in post-acquisition operating performance of acquiring firms over 12–36 months. We find independent directors, managerial shareholding, ownership concentration have a positive and significant impact on operating performance of acquiring firms. However, the related party transactions exert a negative and significant effect on matched control adjusted ROA. Further analysis of our sub-sample indicates that privately owned enterprises are better monitors compared to the state owned enterprises.     

The impact of wealth on financial mistakes: Evidence from credit card non-payment

Recent research finds that poorer individuals make financial mistakes when the decisions are difficult and rare. We examine who makes financial mistakes involving decisions that are easier and more frequent – specifically, the inadvertent failure to pay monthly credit card balances when sufficient funds are available. On the one hand poorer individuals may make such mistakes because of lower levels of financial literacy. Alternatively, richer individuals may make such mistakes because of the relatively lower costs to them of such mistakes. We examine this question using confidential individual credit card statement data, with over a million data points. Our results show that poorer individuals are more likely to make these mistakes, even after controlling for education.     

电子商务:信用和服务的竞争

作为新兴的商业模式，中国电子商务在经历了几年的低谷之后，2004年步入战略机遇期并日趋成熟，互联网交易的低成本、快捷、方便等优势初露端倪。从技术角度看，电子商务的服务平台、电子支付的安全网络都已经没有不可逾越的障碍，而能否建立良好的信誉和提供比传统零售业更为优质的服务，就成为电子商务发展的软环境。中国互联网络信息中心(CNNIC)2005年最新报告显示，人们不愿进行网上购物的主要原因是“不信任网站，担心商品质量问题，质疑网络购物的安全性，担心售后服务，担心付款环节等”。     

Price impact and bursts in liquidity provision

This paper analyses brief episodes of high-intensity quote turnover and revision—‘bursts’ in quotes—in the US equity market. Such events occur very frequently, several hundred times a day for actively traded stocks. We find significant price impact associated with these market maker initiated events, about five times higher than during non-burst periods. Bursts in quotes are concurrent with short-lived structural breaks in the informational relationship between market makers and market takers. During bursts, market makers no longer passively impound information from order flow into quotes—a departure from the traditional market microstructure paradigm. Rather, market makers significantly impact prices during bursts in quotes. Further analysis shows that there is asymmetry in adverse selection between the bid and ask sides of the limit order book and only a sub-population of market makers enjoys an informational advantage during bursts. Market makers on the side opposite the burst suffer elevated adverse selection costs, while market makers on the side of the burst realize positive spread, irrespective of the order flow direction. Our results call attention to the need for a new microstructure perspective in understanding modern high-frequency limit order book markets and the quote manipulation strategies at the disposal of the fast market makers.     

Board of directors characteristics and credit union financial performance: a pitch

This short paper applies the ‘pitching research’ template developed by Faff (2015) to an academic research topic in corporate governance of Australian credit unions, from an accounting discipline perspective. The pitch template identifies the core elements that form the framework of any research project.     

Alternative central bank credit policies for liquidity provision in a model of payments

I explore alternative central bank policies for liquidity provision in a model of payments. I use a mechanism design approach so that agents’ incentives to default are explicit and contingent on the credit policy designed. In the first policy, the central bank invests in costly enforcement and charges an interest rate to recover costs. I show that the second-best solution is not distortionary. In the second policy, the central bank requires collateral. If collateral does not bear an opportunity cost, then the solution is first best. Otherwise, the second best is distortionary because collateral serves as a binding credit constraint.     

农信社业务办公终端存储应用实践

我国经济体制和金融体制的改革加快了银行业信息化进程。作为一支专职服务农民、农业和农村经济的特殊的金融组织——农村信用合作社联社，也加快了信息化建设步伐。     

The impact of cash flow management versus accruals management on credit rating performance and usage

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Corporate bond issuers attempt to influence bond ratings through their discretion over reported numbers, which could diminish credit rating quality....