The crisis of Japanese retailing at the turn of the millennium: a crisis of corporate governance and finance

The year 2000 saw a sudden rise in failures of prominent Japanese retailers. With problems of corporate finance and governance being pointed out as early as the 1970s, the recent problems as well as the continuous rise of companies up to then have to be explained. This article contends that a major explanatory factor is the weakening of the existing stable relationships between retailers and financial institutions. Banks functioned as lenders, shareholders and providers of management resources. Changes in the banking sector led to changes in the relationship at the end of the 1990s. Problems in corporate governance surfaced that might result in a major reorganization of the Japanese retail scene.     

Institutional Investors on Boards: Does Their Behavior Influence Corporate Finance?

We examine whether the behavior of institutional investors representatives on boards leads to observable differences in corporate finance. We find that directors representing pressure-sensitive investors (i.e., banks and insurance companies) prefer lower financial leverage whereas pressure-resistant directors (i.e., mutual funds and pension funds) show no particular preference. When analyzed separately, directors appointed by banks and insurance firms have different attitudes. Bank representatives on boards increase both the financial leverage and the banking debt. This result suggests that some types of institutional directors provide financial resources to the firms on whose board they sit, supporting the view that boards manage the uncertainty associated with strategic decision making and provide firms with preferential access to resources and financial expertise. This research has interesting academic and policy implications for the debate over the proper degree of institutional involvement in corporate governance. Different institutional investors have different agendas and incentives for corporate governance, and, therefore, both researchers and policy makers should no longer consider institutional investors as a whole. In addition, our paper calls for new research on the causes and implications of institutional investor involvement in the corporate governance of nonfinancial firms. This new research could require new insights on the dynamics within the boards and on the interplay among the knowledge, incentives and attitudes of quite different directors.     

险资入市促进了公司创新吗

随着国家政策的放开,保险公司持股上市企业的现象剧增,保险机构投资者逐渐成为中国资本市场中的重要角色,对企业经营决策发挥了重大作用。在此背景下,本文考察了险资入市对企业创新活动的影响。研究发现:一方面,保险机构投资者持股公司的研发投入和专利产出更少;另一方面,保险机构投资者持股公司的CEO强制变更概率更高,经营业绩更差。本文还讨论了保险公司影响企业创新背后的理论机理。本文研究表明,险资持股带来了过度监督效应,抑制了企业创新。本文有助于市场加深对保险机构的认识,丰富企业创新的相关研究,为改善公司治理提供建议。保险机构投资者是中国资本市场改革的重要力量,政府监管部门需合理引导保险机构投资者,使其发挥积极的外部治理作用。     

Corporate Governance in Asia: A Survey

Corporate governance has received much attention in recent years, partly due to the Asian financial crisis. We review the literature on corporate governance issues in Asia to develop region‐specific and general lessons. Much attention has been given to poor corporate sector performance, but most studies do not suggest that Asian firms were badly run. The literature does confirm the limited protection of minority rights in Asia, allowing controlling shareholders to expropriate minority shareholders. Agency problems have been exacerbated by low corporate transparency, associated with rent‐seeking and relationship‐based transactions, extensive group structures and diversification, and risky financial structures. The controlling shareholder bears some of agency costs in the form of share price discounts and expenditures on monitoring, bonding and reputation building. The Asian financial crisis further showed that conventional and alternative corporate governance mechanisms can have limited effectiveness in systems with weak institutions and poor property rights. Overall, the understanding of the determinants of firm organizational structures, corporate governance practices and outcomes remains limited, however.     

Der deutsche Bankensektor

Although Germany’s banking sector has experienced a wave of consolidation, especially since the financial crisis, the country is still home to a high number of banking institutions. When domestic economic activity was sluggish in the mid-2000s, German banks searched for sources of income abroad; some of them have massively invested in structured products. As a consequence, the financial crisis of 2007–2009 has hit German banks harder than those from other eurozone countries. The European Commission has played a key role in restructuring the sector, asking in particular that banks which have received state aid strongly reduce their balance sheets — and ordering the liquidation of one of them. Since 2010 the German banking sector has returned to the profit zone and appears more robust thanks to an increase of equity and a reduction of balance sheets. The leverage ratio remains nevertheless significant, profitability remains low in a context of strong competition on the domestic market, and some banks find themselves deeply affected by the crisis of the shipping sector.     

Did Investors Herd during the Financial Crisis? Evidence from the US Financial Industry

We examine the herding behavior of investors in the US financial industry, especially commercial banks, S&Ls, investment and insurance firms during global financial crisis of 2008 towards own sub‐sector and market consensus using augmented cross sectional absolute deviation of returns (CSAD) model. After distinguishing between fundamental and non‐fundamental information, we find a greater influence of global financial crisis on spurious herding for commercial and investment banks, and such herding increases in the down market and with conditional volatility of returns, but adverse herding is prevalent among investors during normal period in response to fundamental information. We also find that herding intensity on fundamental information is relatively high with market consensus for all financial institutions except insurance firms in high volatility regime, and intentional herding is only significant and limited to S&Ls and investment banks in high volatility regime. Our findings suggest limited spillover effects of herding when investors face non‐fundamental information.     

试析商业银行的特殊性及其对法人治理的影响

完善法人治理结构是银行改革的核心,但目前对商业银行法人治理的研究基本上只是简单套用企业法人治理理论,并没有充分考虑商业银行与一般企业的差异。本文着重研究了商业银行在经营目标、经营地位、资本结构、经营风险、存款保险、信息透明度和政府管制等方面的特殊性及其对法人治理的影响,希望能为构建具有商业银行自身特色的法人治理理论体系奠定基础。     

Corporate social responsibility and bank risk profile: evidence from Europe

This study analyzes the impact of risk profile on sustainability reporting and its quality in European banks. Financial institutions (FI) play a social role in the financial inclusion process and incorporate environmental considerations into credit risk assessment, making corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related issues vital for risk management systems. FI with lower capital risk, higher liquidity risk, higher profitability in banking, and higher sensitivity to market risk tend to issue CSR reports. The findings suggest that FI with lower profitability in banking disclose higher quality CSR financial services sector (FSS)-specific information, whereas FI not submitting CSR reports for external assurance or having their CSR reports assured by certain auditors issue lower quality CSR/FSS-specific information.     

Why Do Japanese Non-Local Regional Banks Enter Other Prefectures Under the Region-Based Relationship Banking Policy?

In this study, we investigate the market characteristics of prefectures in which non-local regional banks of other prefectures choose to enter and their motivations for doing so, considering the Japanese government’s requirements for regional financial institutions to actively stimulate their local economies. In particular, by pooling prefecture-level data, the market characteristics of prefectures that experience more entrances by non-local regional banks compared with other prefectures are examined. It was found that entrance by non-local regional banks is more common in prefectures containing active high-performing companies. Hence, it can be considered that non-local regional banks that are not satisfied with lending opportunities in their home prefectures enter other prefectures to increase their lending opportunities to high-performing companies. This study contributes to the clarification of why many regional banks do not concentrate on businesses within their local regions and intentionally enter other prefectures, which is in contrast with the intent of the region-based relationship banking policy.     

Stand by me: Friends,relationship banking,and financial governance in Asia

While northeastern Asian economies have grown at a stellar rate over the past 4 decades, during the same period, bank officials and financial market participants have been charged with corruption, nepotism, and government meddling and have incurred high levels of non-performing loans. The close relationships between financiers and their clients, a part of Chinese society known as guanxi, has often been criticized as a key source of corruption in Northeast Asia finance. However, the complex nature of relationships in guanxi networks brings a good side to Asian finance in that reputational risk disciplines financiers, clients, and government officials. I delve into the personal side of Asian finance using the theoretical poles of transactional and relationship banking. Transactional banking is a top-down, hard-data impersonal form of financial contracting, while relationship banking is a bottom-up interpersonal form of banking that relies on softer data. I argue that relationship banking, which naturally fits into an Asian context, could engender a shift from bad behavior to good behavior to protect wealth, reputation, and friends. Contrary to conventional wisdom, guanxi may lead to better governance in banking and other areas of Asian finance as more information becomes available through numerous media outlets and as groups outside the banking sector (e.g., insurance companies, the press, auditors, and citizens) discipline bankers and their clients through ‘private monitoring.’     

The Effectiveness of Bank Governance Reforms in the Wake of the Financial Crisis: A Stakeholder Approach

This study examines the impact of bank corporate governance reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. These reforms correspond to criticism of shareholder-focused agency-based corporate governance practices and a renewed focus on the stakeholder impact of corporate governance lapses in the financial sector. This study differs from previous studies of corporate governance in the financial sector in using performance indicators that proxy the interests of customers and the community. Drawing on data from 134 countries over an eight-year period from 2004 to 2011, we find that the post-crisis corporate governance reforms in the banking sector appear to be effective in promoting greater bank attention to non-shareholder stakeholders’ interests. This study provides a means to conceptualize measures of bank performance from a stakeholder perspective in order to test emerging ideas about governance effectiveness in the financial sector.     

Principles,problems and perspectives of Islamic banking

Since the late 1970s, financial institutions (banks, investment companies, insurance companies) have grown up in many countries in the Moslem world with the intention of conducting their business in accordance with Islamic, or Shariah, law. Above all else, this means business involving no interest payments. The following article explains the most important principles of Islamic banking and outlines some of the problems which appear to be most central to this sphere.     

中国货币市场基金发展与利率市场化：基于美国的经验

美国货币市场基金发展与利率市场化改革推进是相辅相成的。货币市场基金的出现分流了银行存款,促使美联储启动存款利率市场化改革;改革进程中通胀高企、银行产品创新滞后等因素为货币市场基金提供了发展空间。货币市场基金的兴起对美国金融结构及各部分资产负债表产生深远影响,存款机构投资风险偏好提升,居民、企业部门资产配置改变。中国货币市场基金与利率市场化正在形成积极有效互动,出现“小额先行、加速推进”的独特路径,推动商业银行与金融市场的变革和创新。     

Impact of the Financial Crisis on Cross‐Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Concentration in the Global Banking Industry

The global banking industry has seen dramatic changes in the past 40 years. Most recently, the financial liberalization of emerging markets and the global financial crisis have significantly impacted the market share of banks worldwide. This article investigates the impact of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the banking sector and emphasizes the role of emerging‐market banks in the postcrisis consolidation trend. Using M&A data and concentration data over the period 2000–2013, our analysis indicates that the financial crisis had a significant impact on worldwide M&As, especially on the direction of the transactions. Emerging‐market banks appear to be major acquirers in the postcrisis period, targeting both neighboring countries and developed economies in Europe. We also observe an increase in bank concentration in developed markets most hit by the financial crisis, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, whereas bank concentration decreased in emerging markets. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Lanchester Engine Company Limited

The Japanese financial system is regarded as a key factor behind Japan's remarkable post-war growth. The main bank arrangements, linking companies with a principal source of funds, and complementary institutional networks were complex and intricate, and underpinned industrial investment and expansion. In the 1950s, the city banks, as the main banks of manufacturers, were asked to supply large amounts of funds to their clients, acting as substitutes of the stock market. As their liquidity decreased, post-war reconstruction policies reduced their risk-bearing capabilities. In order to stabilise the system and to sustain the funds needed for strategic industries, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan began actively to regulate the financial markets, while the Ministry of International Trade and Industry co-ordinated policy with the industrial sector. It was this system of complementary institutions, including the main banks, long-term financial institutions, and government agencies, which enabled Japan's high-speed growth.     

Marketing Organisation and Policy in the Cotton Trade: M'connel & Kennedy of Manchester 1795–1835

The Japanese financial system is regarded as a key factor behind Japan's remarkable post-war growth. The main bank arrangements, linking companies with a principal source of funds, and complementary institutional networks were complex and intricate, and underpinned industrial investment and expansion. In the 1950s, the city banks, as the main banks of manufactures, were asked to supply large amounts of funds to their clients, acting as substitutes of the stock market. As their liquidity decreased, post-war reconstruction policies reduced their risk-bearing capabilities. In order to stabilise the system and to sustain the funds needed for strategic industries, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan began actively to regulate the financial markets, while the Ministry of International Trade and Industry co-ordinated policy with the industrial sector. It was this system of complementary institutions, including the main banks, long-term financial institutions, and government agencies, which enabled Japan's high-speed growth.     

Why Does the Problem Persist? ‘Rational Rigidity’ and the Plight of Japanese Banks

One of the most perplexing factors in the Japanese financial crisis is the apparently non‐optimal and non‐rational behaviour of Japanese banks. We provide a “rational” explanation for bank behaviour based on a theory of community banking that incorporates Japanese institutional characteristics. We find three implications of community banking – a low lending rate, a low bankruptcy rate, and in particular, institutionalisation of ‘rational rigidity’ (an institutional pledge of no profit maximisation) – in Japanese banks. We argue that this type of banking is viable as long as the economy expands and asset prices go up, which was the case before the asset‐market crash in 1990. The stagnation and free‐fall of asset prices in the 1990s exerted tremendous pressure on Japanese banks but did not paralyse them completely in the 1990s, although there are indications that they failed to restructure distressed large corporations in some sectors, notably real estate. Thus, the problem is not that paralysed banks are blocking recovery, but that their current institutionalised rigidity in banking practices is no longer viable because private enterprises in the market economy are suffering from asset‐price deflation and economic stagnation.     

Family Finance: Value Creation and the Democratization of Cross-Border Governance

As Mira Wilkins has argued, there is a curious disconnect betweenbusiness and financial history (Wilkins 2004). Whereas businesshistory literature has rediscovered the importance of familybusiness in many countries and in many sectors of contemporarycommercial life, for example, little has been written aboutfamily banking as an alternative to joint-stock, management-runfinancial institutions. This lacuna is odd for many reasons.First, family banking is one of the best-known examples of familybusiness in history. Second, family banks once played a muchgreater role in international investment banking than it doestoday. Third, some family financial institutions are still active(dominant) in certain market segments and countries. This paperwill focus on how, when and why family banking lost its positionin international (multinational) banking during the first fewdecades of the twentieth century. Although political upheavaland a widespread movement to reduce the power of private financialinstitutions undermined their businesses, family banks suffered,too, from America's maturing as a financial center. I will arguethat this shift is connected with the increased importance ofAmerican markets and financial regulations, which, in the 1930s,deliberately steered financial transactions away from privatedealings and toward transparent impersonal exchanges and capitalmarkets with new forms of aggregated capital and individualinvestors, in which private banks were ill-suited to manageor at the least for which they had no special competitive edge.Using concepts drawn from an earlier paper on family businessesand relying mostly on secondary sources, this paper will furtherargue that in markets or market segments, such as LeveragedBuyouts, where uncertainty forms a greater part of the transactionalenvironment, family banking still plays a significant role.     

美国银行业破产模式变化趋势及其启示

在美国,一般企业的破产主要表现为兼并与收购,遵循的是一种市场驱动的事后破产模式:而商业银行的破产过程则由金融监管部门主导,表现为一种由行政管制驱动的事前破产模式.这两种破产模式在破产适用法规、破产目标、主导者、破产程序等方面存在异同.目前由于市场竞争的发展和银行公司治理结构的改变,美国银行业兼并收购开始盛行,有向事后破产模式转变的趋势.中国银行业的公司治理和银行破产法制定亦可从中得到若干重要启示.     

对国有商业银行治理结构的探讨

公司治理改革已经成为一个普遍关注的焦点问题。这一改革不限于某个特定地区或某些国家,而是一个全球性现象。随着市场经济体制改革的深入以及世界贸易组织的加入,我国国有商业银行面临越来越大的冲击。构建良好的银行治理结构是我国国有商业银行改革的关键。目前我国国有商业银行公司治理结构存在一定的缺陷,主要有产权结构单一,委托代理链条长,存在明显的内部人控制,缺乏有效的管理者激励机制以及信息披露制度方面的问题。为此,针对我国国有商业银行现存缺陷,提出了相应的改进建议。