Transparency, Risk Management and International Financial Fragility


Book Description

Discussions of the role of derivatives and their risks, as well as discussions of financial risks in general, often fail to distinguish between risks that are taken consciously and ones that are not. To understand the breeding conditions for financial crises, the prime source of concern is not risk per se, but the unintended, or unanticipated accumulation of risks by individuals, institutions or governments including the concealing of risks from stakeholders and overseers of those entities. This report, the fourth in the ICMB/CEPR series of Geneva Reports on the World Economy, analyses specific situations in which significant unanticipated and unintended financial risks can accumulate. The focus is, in particular, on the implicit guarantees that governments extend to banks and other financial institutions, and which may result in the accumulation, often unrecognised from the viewpoint of the government, of unanticipated risks in the balance sheet of the public sector. that a government's exposure to risk arising from a guarantee is non-linear. For instance, in the case of a government which guarantees the liabilities of the banking system, the additional liability transferred onto the government's balance sheet by a 10% shock to the capital of firms is larger the lower that capital is to start with. Recognising this non-linearity in the transmission of risk exposures is essential to the reduction of the accumulation of unanticipated risks on the government's balance sheet. Analyses of recent international financial crises recognise that the implicit guarantees governments extend to banks and corporations create the potential to greatly weaken their balance sheets. exist, rather than on measurement of the exposures they create. This report offers just such a framework for measuring the extent of a government's exposure to risk and how that exposure changes over time. The report also discusses ideas on how risk exposures can be controlled, hedged and transferred through the use of derivatives, swap contracts, and other contractual agreements.







Powering the Digital Economy: Opportunities and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Finance


Book Description

This paper discusses the impact of the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the financial sector. It highlights the benefits these technologies bring in terms of financial deepening and efficiency, while raising concerns about its potential in widening the digital divide between advanced and developing economies. The paper advances the discussion on the impact of this technology by distilling and categorizing the unique risks that it could pose to the integrity and stability of the financial system, policy challenges, and potential regulatory approaches. The evolving nature of this technology and its application in finance means that the full extent of its strengths and weaknesses is yet to be fully understood. Given the risk of unexpected pitfalls, countries will need to strengthen prudential oversight.




OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2021


Book Description

This edition of the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook reviews developments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for government borrowing needs, funding conditions and funding strategies in the OECD area.




Risk Management and Regulation


Book Description

The evolution of risk management has resulted from the interplay of financial crises, risk management practices, and regulatory actions. In the 1970s, research lay the intellectual foundations for the risk management practices that were systematically implemented in the 1980s as bond trading revolutionized Wall Street. Quants developed dynamic hedging, Value-at-Risk, and credit risk models based on the insights of financial economics. In parallel, the Basel I framework created a level playing field among banks across countries. Following the 1987 stock market crash, the near failure of Salomon Brothers, and the failure of Drexel Burnham Lambert, in 1996 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published the Market Risk Amendment to the Basel I Capital Accord; the amendment went into effect in 1998. It led to a migration of bank risk management practices toward market risk regulations. The framework was further developed in the Basel II Accord, which, however, from the very beginning, was labeled as being procyclical due to the reliance of capital requirements on contemporaneous volatility estimates. Indeed, the failure to measure and manage risk adequately can be viewed as a key contributor to the 2008 global financial crisis. Subsequent innovations in risk management practices have been dominated by regulatory innovations, including capital and liquidity stress testing, macroprudential surcharges, resolution regimes, and countercyclical capital requirements.




The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report


Book Description

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.







Transparency in Government Operations


Book Description

Transparency in government operations is widely regarded as an important precondition for macroeconomic fiscal sustainability, good governance, and overall fiscal rectitude. Notably, the Interim Committee, at its April and September 1996 meetings, stressed the need for greater fiscal transparency. Prompted by these concerns, this paper represents a first attempt to address many of the aspects of transparency in government operations. It provides an overview of major issues in fiscal transparency and examines the IMF's role in promoting transparency in government operations.




Global Financial Stability Report, April 2013


Book Description

The Global Financial Stability Report examines current risks facing the global financial system and policy actions that may mitigate these. It analyzes the key challenges facing financial and nonfinancial firms as they continue to repair their balance sheets. Chapter 2 takes a closer look at whether sovereign credit default swaps markets are good indicators of sovereign credit risk. Chapter 3 examines unconventional monetary policy in some depth, including the policies pursued by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the U.S. Federal Reserve.




International Financial Instability


Book Description

This book explores the potential and problems of bank safety and efficiency arising from the rapidly growing area of cross-border banking in the form of branches or subsidiaries with primarily only national prudential regulation. There are likely to be differences in the treatment of the same bank operating in different countries or of different banks from different home countries operating in the same country with respect to deposit insurance provisions, declaration of insolvency, resolution of insolvencies, and lender of last resort protection. The book identifies these protection problems and discusses possible solutions, such as greater cross-border cooperation, harmonization and organizations. The contributors to this book include experts from different countries and from a wide range of affiliations, including academia, regulators, practitioners, and international organizations. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Cross-Border Banking Regulation OCo A WayForward: The European Case (68 KB). Contents: Special Addresses: Cross-Border Banking Regulation OCo A Way Forward: The European Case (Stefan Ingves); Remarks before the Conference on International Financial Instability (Sheila C Bair); Benign Financial Conditions, Asset Management, and Political Risks: Trying to Make Sense of Our Times (Raghuram G Rajan); International Financial Instability: Cross-Border Banking and National Regulation Chicago OCo Dinner Remarks (Jean Pierre Sabourin); Landscape of International Banking and Financial Crises: Current State of Cross-Border Banking (Dirk Schoenmaker & Christiaan van Laecke); Actual and Near-Miss Cross-Border Crises (Carl-Johan Lindgren); A Review of Financial Stability Reports (Sander Oosterloo, Jakob de Haan, & Richard Jong-A-Pin); Discussion of Landscape of International Banking and Financial Crises (Luc Laeven); Causes and Conditions for Cross-Border Instability Transmission and Threats to Stability: Cross-Border Contagion Links and Banking Problems in the Nordic Countries (Bent Vale); Currency Crises, (Hidden) Linkages, and Volume (Max Bruche, Jon Danielsson & Gabriele Galati); What Do We Know about the Performance and Risk of Hedge Funds? (Triphon Phumiwasana, Tong Li, James R Barth & Glenn Yago); Remarks on Causes and Conditions of Financial Instability Panel (Garry Schinasi); Prudential Supervision: Home Country versus Cross-Border Negative Externalities in Large Banking Organization Failures and How to Avoid Them (Robert A Eisenbeis); Conflicts between Home and Host Country Prudential Supervisors (Richard J Herring); Cross-Border Nonbank Risks and Regulatory Cooperation (Paul Wright); Challenges in Cross-Border Supervision and Regulation (Eric Rosengren); Government Safety Net: Bagehot and Coase Meet the Single European Market (V tor Gaspar); Banking in a Changing World: Issues and Questions in the Resolution of Cross-Border Banks (Michael Krimminger); International Banks, Cross-Border Guarantees, and Regulation (Andrew Powell & Giovanni Majnoni); Deposit Insurance, Bank Resolution, and Lender of Last Resort OCo Putting the Pieces Together (Thorsten Beck); Insolvency Resolution: Cross-Border Resolution of Banking Crises (Rosa Mar a Lastra); Bridge Banks and Too Big to Fail: Systemic Risk Exemption (David G Mayes); Prompt Corrective Action: Is There a Case for an International Banking Standard? (Mar a J Nieto & Larry D Wall); Insolvency Resolution: Key Issues Raised by the Papers (Peter G Brierley); Cross-Border Crisis Prevention: Public and Private Strategies: Supervisory Arrangements, LOLR, and Crisis Management in a Single European Banking Market (Arnoud W A Boot); Regulation and Crisis Prevention in the Evolving Global Market (David S Hoelscher & David C Parker); Derivatives Governance and Financial Stability (David Mengle); Cross-Border Crisis Prevention: Public and Private Strategies (Gerard Caprio, Jr.); Where to from Here: Policy Panel: Cross-Border Banking: Where to from Here? (Mutsuo Hatano); Remarks on Deposit Insurance Policy (Andrey Melnikov); The Importance of Planning for Large Bank Insolvencies (Arthur J Murton); Where to from Here: Policy Panel (Guy Saint-Pierre); Some Private-Sector Thoughts on Home/Host-Country Supervisory Issues (Lawrence R Uhlick). Readership: Academics and upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in the areas of financial institutions, banking, financial regulation, or international financial markets; financial regulators, policy-makers, and consultants."