Short sales, price pressure, and the stock price response to convertible bond calls

The announcement of a convertible bond call is associated with an average contemporaneous abnormal stock price decline of 1.75% and an ensuing price recovery in the conversion period. A price fall and the subsequent recovery suggest price pressure as the explanation for the announcement effect. However, in general the option to convert is not exercised early and hence, the increase in the number of shares outstanding does not occur at the announcement date. Instead, this paper argues and provides evidence that hedging-induced short selling causes at least part of the short-run price pressure.     

论日本商业银行进入债券承销市场的效应

日本商业银行进入债券承销市场乃至日本金融业混业经营改革采取的都是一种渐进的方式,而包括金融业混业经营在内的日本金融改革对我国来讲具有较好的借鉴意义。从债券承销佣金、承销商选择和债券收益率价差等3个方面来看,日本商业银行进入债券承销市场是成功的,促进了债券承销市场的竞争,降低了企业发行债券的成本,提高了整体金融效率。就我国的具体情况来看,应在借鉴日本混业经营经验的基础上加快金融业混业经营的步伐。     

On the importance of retail banking relationships

We use proprietary data to analyze the importance of retail banking relationships to commercial banks and their depositors when banks underwrite securities. We find lead underwriters’ retail customers benefit as they demand and end up with significantly more of the highly underpriced issues. We find it is actual underpricing beyond that predicted by grey markets that drive the differential demand from the lead bank retail clientele, suggesting that banks pass on information about underpriced initial public offerings to their retail depositors. We analyze banks’ incentives for such behavior and find evidence of banks benefiting through retail cross-selling—both brokerage accounts and consumer loans increase significantly.     

Relationship Banking and the Pricing of Financial Services

We investigate pricing effects of the joint production of loans and security underwritings. We control for firm and borrower characteristics, including differences in sequencing, which are important for pricing. Contrary to previous studies, when banks combine lending and underwriting within the same customer relationship they charge premiums for both loans and underwriting services. Abstracting from effects of joint production within relationships, depository banks engaged in underwriting price lending and underwriting more cheaply than stand alone investment banks. One advantage borrowers enjoy from bundling products within a banking relationship is a form of liquidity risk insurance, which is manifested in a reduced demand for lines of credit. We also find evidence of a “road show” effect; firms enjoy loan pricing discounts on loans that are negotiated at times close to the debt underwritings, whether or not the same bank provides both services. Relationship effects are only visible when lending and underwriting both occur, and are stronger for equity-loan relationships than for debt-loan relationships. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

机动车辆保险承保周期的回归模型分析

通过构造一个包含多个变量的回归模型来检验各种因素对保费变动的影响,结果表明:滞后损失率和滞后保费增长率对当期保费增长影响非常显著;滞后损失增长率对当期保费增长率影响不显著;在我国机动车辆保险中,宏观经济因素包括利率和GDP对保费增长率的影响很小.因此,我国机动车辆保险承保周期存在原因较为符合承保能力限制假说.     

Product-market strategy and underwriting performance in the United Kingdom’s property–casualty insurance market

Drawing on a framework from the organizational economics literature, we utilize a panel data design to examine empirically the effect of motor insurance and liability insurance business on the overall underwriting performance of insurers operating in the United Kingdom’s (UK) property–casualty insurance market. We find that participation in liability insurance contributes positively to underwriting performance, whereas motor insurance is associated with inferior underwriting performance. Additionally, we find that higher reinsurance ratio is associated with better underwriting performance, but reduced profit margins. Our results show that higher leverage too is associated with better underwriting performance. We conclude that our results could have potentially important commercial and/or policy implications.     

Underwriter reputation and the quality of certification: Evidence from high-yield bonds

This paper provides primary evidence of whether certification via reputable underwriters is beneficial to investors in the corporate bond market. We focus on the high-yield bond market in which certification of issuer quality is most valuable to investors owing to low liquidity and issuing firms’ high opacity and default risk. We find bonds underwritten by the most reputable underwriters to be associated with significantly higher downgrade and default risk. Investors seem to be aware of this relation, as we further find the private information conveyed via the issuer-reputable underwriter match to have a significantly positive effect on at-issue yield spreads. Our results are consistent with the market-power hypothesis, and contradict the traditional certification hypothesis and underlying reputation mechanism.     

对凭证式国债发行工作的几点思考

凭证式国债是国家发行的一种重要金融债券,对支持我国经济的发展发挥了重要作用。近年来,凭证式国债在发行过程中出现了许多问题,亟需采取措施加以解决,譬如,可以采取加强金融监管、加大连规操作的处罚力度、扩大延续性宣传、调整国债发行手续费等方法,以确保其能够顺畅发行。     

我国产险公司利用赔款准备金实现盈余管理的实证研究

利用我国产险业2001--2005年的财务数据,本文采用盈余频率分布模型,发现产险公司存在盈余管理现象。在此基础上,本文实证分析产险公司赔款准备金与盈余管理及其他财务指标之间的关联性,揭示公司调整赔款准备金的动机。结果表明,产险公司存在利用赔款准备金评估方式修饰盈余的动机。当承保结果不佳、赔付恶化,或者投资收益较低时,产险公司会低估赔款准备金,虚增账面盈余。应对监营也是产险公司利用赔款准备金进行盈余管理的重要诱因。中、外资产险公司税赋动机存在显著的差异。2005年赔款准备金评估方法的改变并未显著减弱产险公司利用赔款准备金进行盈余管理的动机,但赔款准备金提取的谨慎程度显著提高。     

Risk management in life insurance companies: Evidence from Taiwan

The solvency issue of life insurance companies has become more important in recent years as business risks turn increasingly greater. This study examines the relationship among investing risk, underwriting risk, and the capital ratio during the post risk-based capital regulation period of 2004–2009 in Taiwan. In addition to the two-stage least square regression (2SLS), we also adopt the two-stage quantile regression (2SQR) to capture the effects of low capital (or risk) levels and high capital (or risk) levels. 2SLS do not fully explain the capital-risk relation. Contrary to previous evidence reported in the U.S., our findings in 2SQR model indicate that the relationship between capital and underwriting risk is positive, while the relationship between investing risk and capital shows a reverse pattern. Overall, the 2SQR provides stronger evidence than the 2SLS.