Comparative study between conventional and Islamic banks’ liquidity after the Subprime Crisis

The consequences of the Subprime Crisis have shown a serious deficiency in the financing structures of conventional and Islamic banks resulting from frequent resilience. Specifically, the paper argues that large banks that relied primarily on wholesale external funding, such as resources from other banks, money market funds and treasuries of multi-national companies, have been hit hard by the effects of the Crisis. Conversely, banks that relied mainly on deposits from companies or individuals have weathered the Crisis very well because of the interdependent relationships in the banking and foreign exchange markets. Although the two types have suffered the effects of the Crisis, previous comparative studies between the liquidities of conventional and Islamic banks have produced inconclusive results. This brings us to compare their liquidities during a financial stable period (2010–2018) and to provide a more accurate answer using a new original methodology. Based on two populations encompassing all the classical and Islamic banks in the concerned countries, we chose two samples. After a conditional selection of the observations and a filtering process, the sizes were reduced to the value of 63 banks in each sample. Therefore, we have found that Islamic banks are more liquid than their conventional counterparts.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AND STOCK MARKET DEVELOPMENT IN A SMALL SOUTHERN AFRICA ECONOMY

This paper investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment and stock market development in a small southern African economy. Specifically, the paper analyses long-run, short-run and causal relationships between foreign direct investment and stock market development in Eswatini for the 1990 to 2018 periods. Results of preliminary analyses of the variable show existence of positive skewness, fat-tailed, non-normal distribution, and I(1) order of integration for the foreign direct investment and stock market return series. Estimates from the ARDL model indicate evidence of a positive and statistically insignificant long-run relationship between foreign direct investment and stock market development in the kingdom of Eswatini. But in the short-run, there exist no relationship between foreign direct investment and stock market development in Eswatini. Estimates from Granger causality test do not show any evidence of causal relationship between foreign direct investment and stock market development in Eswatini. We recommend amongst others that capital market authorities should establish measures to increase the number of listings in the market so as boost investment options. In addition, there should be massive domestic investor-education on benefits of financing projects with a combination capital market funds, which has long-term tenor, and money market funds, which are of short-term nature.

Valuation discrepancies in money market funds during market disruptions: evidence from Egypt

Money market funds (MMFs) are generally considered safe investment vehicles, but the 2008 global financial crisis showed their vulnerability during market disruptions resulting in increased regulatory oversight across developed markets to protect investors. This paper examines the effect of MMF accounting regulation on investors in an emerging market context. It hypothesizes that the continued use of amortized cost methods to account for MMFs’ Net Asset Value (NAV) during market disruptions can result in unfair treatment of investors. The Egyptian money market provided a unique laboratory to test this hypothesis over a prominent economic crisis that combined high levels of interest rate volatility with a redemption-only structure for MMFs. A model that measures the discrepancies between the amortized and floating market NAVs per certificate for various money market portfolios (MMPs) simulating MMFs of different durations is tested using the Egyptian data. A sharp rise in interest rates is found to lead to significant discrepancies between the amortized NAV per certificate relative to their floating value. Serial investor redemptions of the certificates compound the discrepancies, but only certificate holders remaining in the funds bear the accumulated losses, which are augmented for portfolios with higher durations. The results suggest that emerging market regulators consider introducing the rules that switch to floating NAV calculations for MMFs during such periods to promote equality across all investors.

United States

The U.S. financial system is very large, well-diversified, and home to numerous financial institutions which are significant at a global scale. Eight Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs) are incorporated in the U.S., as well as several other large financial institutions, such as asset managers, insurers, and money market funds. Assets of the financial system amounted to about US$100 trillion at end-2019 and accounted for 500 percent of GDP. While the eight G-SIBs dominate the U.S. banking landscape, banking system assets represent only about 22 percent of total financial system assets. The systemic risk assessment (including stress testing) of this FSAP reflect the highly diversified nature of the U.S. financial system and focuses on banks, mutual and money market funds, insurance companies as well as cross-institutional and cross-sectoral linkages and exposures.