Limiting too-big-to-fail: market reactions to policy announcements and actions

Banks considered too-big-to-fail (TBTF) tend to benefit from funding cost advantages as their debt is considered implicitly guaranteed by public authorities, even if the latter have undertaken substantial effort to limit TBTF. This paper focuses on the changes in related market perceptions in response to bank regulatory and resolution reform announcements as well as actual failure resolution actions. It analyses how premia on risky bank debt have reacted to such events, using data for senior and subordinated debt CDS quotes for 45 European banks from January 2007 to May 2020. The empirical results are consistent with progress being made in reducing the value of implicit bank debt guarantees, especially on subordinated bank liabilities. Some earlier bank failure resolution actions appeared to significantly raise risk premia, although more recent failure resolution cases either had no effect on risk premia or moved them in the opposite direction. Several of these events consisted of no-action, that is, in particular, they did not entail any bail-in. As opposed to resolution actions, the reactions of risk premia to policy and regulatory announcements are more difficult to explain and no clear pattern seems to be emerging, confirming the view that action speaks louder than words.

Organized Crime and Firms' Financial Statements: Evidence from Criminal Investigations in Italy

We investigate how connections to organized crime manifest on firms' financial statements and analyze the impact of these connections on firm performance outcomes. Using a unique dataset that identifies Italian firms connected to organized crime, we find that connected firms have lower profitability, even though they report higher sales and lower labor cost. Connected firms also have higher bank debt, report lower cash holdings, experience quicker operating cycles, and are more likely to file for bankruptcy. Further, we find that connected firms are more tax aggressive and engage in downward earnings manipulation. To corroborate our results, we exploit an amendment to the Italian Anti-Money Laundering regulation as a shock to the extent to which criminal organizations could expropriate connected firms' resources through money laundering. Our collective evidence suggests that connections to organized crime can drain a firm's resources, possibly through money-laundering schemes, and jeopardize its existence, thereby harming its shareholders.

Capital Controls, Domestic Macroprudential Policy and the Bank Lending Channel of Monetary Policy

We study how capital controls and domestic macroprudential policy tame credit supply booms, respectively targeting foreign and domestic bank debt. For identification, we exploit the simultaneous introduction of capital controls on foreign exchange (FX) debt inflows and an increase of reserve requirements on domestic bank deposits in Colombia during a strong credit boom, as well as credit registry and bank balance sheet data. Our results suggest that first, an increase in the local monetary policy rate, raising the interest rate spread with the United States, allows more FX-indebted banks to carry trade cheap FX funds with more expensive peso lending, especially toward riskier, opaque firms. Capital controls tax FX debt and break the carry trade. Second, the increase in reserve requirements on domestic deposits directly reduces credit supply, and more so for riskier, opaque firms, rather than enhances the transmission of monetary rates on credit supply. Importantly, different banks finance credit in the boom with either domestic or foreign (FX) financing. Hence, capital controls and domestic macroprudential policy complementarily mitigate the boom and the associated risk-taking through two distinct channels

Local financial development and cash holdings in Italian SMEs

In this article, we investigate the effect of local financial development on cash holdings of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Consistent with the hypothesis that local financial development reduces the need to hold precautionary cash because it facilitates access to bank debt, we find that local financial development measured by the density of bank branches in Italian provinces has a negative effect on corporate cash holdings. This effect is driven by SMEs with bank debt. Furthermore, the negative effect of local financial development on cash holdings only exists for younger and smaller SMEs, which are more likely to benefit from increased local financial development. Our work highlights that local financial development is an important driver of policies on holding cash by SMEs and is particularly relevant during crisis periods, such as the recent COVID-19 crisis.

Corporate Governance and Agency Problems During Pre-And Post-Indian Companies Act 2013 Regimes

This research paper makes a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of governance mechanisms in mitigating the agency problems in the Indian corporate sector during the pre and post-Indian Companies Act 2013 periods, using the panel OLS regression methodology on a sample of 315 companies drawn from the BSE 500 index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for 10 years spanning from 2008-2018. Based on the review of literature, this paper has utilized proxy Operating Ratio for measuring the agency cost as the dependent variable. It also has identified ten governance mechanisms as independent variables; board size, independent directors, CEO-chairperson separation, audit committee, stakeholders’ relationship committee, nomination and remuneration committee, promotors’ holdings, leverage, bank debt, and firm size. The descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and multivariate regression analysis have been performed for evaluating the effectiveness of the governance mechanism in mitigating agency problems. The descriptive statistics reveal that agency problems in Indian companies have drastically increased during the post-companies Act 2013 period. The findings also disclose that Indian firms have by and large adopted the provisions of the Indian Companies Act 2013 on internal corporate governance mechanisms. However, the multivariate regression results prove that the internal governance mechanisms are not effective in mitigating agency problems during the post-companies Act 2013 regime.

Does debt heterogeneity impact firm value? Evidence from an emerging context

PurposeThe present paper attempts to explain the impact of debt diversification and various debt financing sources on firm value. The paper also aims to address the long-run causality of various factors affecting firm value.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a dynamic panel data model for a sample of 233 listed firms from 2010 to 2019. Two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) is devised to study the impact of firm-specific factors on firm value.FindingsThe study establishes a negative impact of debt diversification on firm value. Further, the results also signal how the choice of debt instruments has a heterogeneous effect on firm value. Non-bank debt leads to a discount in firm value, while bank debt has no effect on firm value. The long-run determinants of firm value are debt ratio, tangibility and liquidity.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the study would aid the mangers in making informed decisions regarding the debt financing structure. Too much reliance on non-bank debt instruments leads to a negative impact on firm value. Therefore careful evaluation is necessary before accessing multiple debt sources.Originality/valueDebt heterogeneity is globally established; however, its presence in the Indian context has not been validated extensively. The study not only validates the existence of debt diversification but also investigates how individual debt instruments affect firm value that is yet to be examined in the Indian context.

CORPORATE INVESTMENT IN THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

This paper exams the impact of high levels of bank debt, leverage, credit obtained from government banks and cash reserves in the long and short terms investments of firms in the main Latin American countries after this crisis. For this purpose, it is applied a difference-in-differences test in a sample of more than 500 public and private firms, using hand-collected data of firms’ governmental bank dependence. The review period considers five previous (2003–2007) and subsequent years (2008–2012) to the crisis. The major results are reduction of long-term investments for firms with greater banking dependence, as well as short-term investments for firms with a higher level of cash reserves. Besides, firms that are more reliant on government-owned banks reduce capital expenditures. Differently from other studies, this one examines the impact of the last global financial crisis on the firms´ investment, considering its dependence of bank debt of institutions that belongs to the government or not. Understanding the mechanisms available to emerging economies can shed light on new countercyclical policies of governments and changes in the legislations of the financial system.