Ownership structure and risk at Colombian banks

The separation between ownership and the control of capital in banks generates differences in the preferences for risk among shareholders and the manager. These differences could imply a corporate governance problem in banks with a dispersed ownership, since owners fail to exert control in the allocation of capital. In this paper we examine the relationship between the ownership structure and risk for Colombian banks. Our results suggest that a high ownership concentration leads to higher levels of risk.

Network externalities across financial institutions

We propose and estimate a financial distress model that explicitly accounts for the interactions or spill-over effects between financial institutions, through the use of a spatial continuity matrix that is build from financial network data of inter bank transactions. Such setup of the financial distress model allows for the empirical validation of the importance of network externalities in determining financial distress, in addition to institution specific and macroeconomic covariates. The relevance of such specification is that it incorporates simultaneously micro-prudential factors (Basel 2) as well as macro-prudential and systemic factors (Basel 3) as determinants of financial distress. Results indicate network externalities are an important determinant of financial health of a financial institutions. The parameter that measures the effect of network externalities is both economically and statistical significant and its inclusion as a risk factor reduces the importance of the firm specific variables such as the size or degree of leverage of the financial institution. In addition we analyze the policy implications of the network factor model for capital requirements and deposit insurance pricing.

Asset allocation, cross-class correlation and the structure of property returns

Practical applications of portfolio optimisation tend to proceed on a “top down” basis where funds are allocated first at asset class level (between, say, bonds, cash, equities and real estate) and then, progressively, at sub-class level (within property to sectors, office, retail, industrial for example). While there are organisational benefits from such an approach, it can potentially lead to sub-optimal allocations when compared to a “global” or “side-by-side” optimisation. This will occur where there are correlations between sub-classes across the asset divide that are masked in aggregation – between, for instance, City offices and the performance of financial services stocks. This paper explores such sub-class linkages using UK monthly stock and property data. Exploratory analysis using clustering procedures and factor analysis suggests that property performance and equity performance are distinctive: there is little persuasive evidence of contemporaneous or lagged sub-class linkages. Formal tests of the equivalence of optimised portfolios using top-down and global approaches failed to demonstrate significant differences, whether or not allocations were constrained. While the results may be a function of measurement of market returns, it is those returns that are used to assess fund performance. Accordingly, the treatment of real estate as a distinct asset class with diversification potential seems justified.

Business level strategy and performance: the moderating effects of environment and structure

Purpose – This study aims to examine the moderating effects of external environment and organisational structure in the relationship between business-level strategy and organisational performance. Design/methodology/approach – The focus of the study is on manufacturing firms in the UK belonging to the electrical and mechanical engineering sectors, and respondents were CEOs. Both objective and subjective measures were used to assess performance. Non-response bias was assessed statistically and appropriate measures taken to minimise the impact of common method variance (CMV). Findings – The results indicate that environmental dynamism and hostility act as moderators in the relationship between business-level strategy and relative competitive performance. In low-hostility environments a cost-leadership strategy and in high-hostility environments a differentiation strategy lead to better performance compared with competitors. In highly dynamic environments a cost-leadership strategy and in low dynamism environments a differentiation strategy are more helpful in improving financial performance. Organisational structure moderates the relationship of both the strategic types with ROS. However, in the case of ROA, the moderating effect of structure was found only in its relationship with cost-leadership strategy. A mechanistic structure is helpful in improving the financial performance of organisations adopting either a cost-leadership or a differentiation strategy. Originality/value – Unlike many other empirical studies, the study makes an important contribution to the literature by examining the moderating effects of both environment and structure on the relationship between business-level strategy and performance in a detailed manner, using moderated regression analysis.

Financial implications for companies running standby generators in support of a smart grid

Integrating renewable energy into built environments requires additional attention to the balancing of supply and demand due to their intermittent nature. Demand Side Response (DSR) has the potential to make money for organisations as well as support the System Operator as the generation mix changes. There is an opportunity to increase the use of existing technologies in order to manage demand. Company-owned standby generators are a rarely used resource; their maintenance schedule often accounts for a majority of their running hours. DSR encompasses a range of technologies and organisations; Sustainability First (2012) suggest that the System Operator (SO), energy supply companies, Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), Aggregators and Customers all stand to benefit from DSR. It is therefore important to consider impact of DSR measures to each of these stakeholders. This paper assesses the financial implications of organisations using existing standby generation equipment for DSR in order to avoid peak electricity charges. It concludes that under the current GB electricity pricing structure, there are several regions where running diesel generators at peak times is financially beneficial to organisations. Issues such as fuel costs, Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) charges, maintenance costs and electricity prices are discussed.

Public real estate and the term structure of interest rates: a cross-country study

Using a variation of the Nelson-Siegel term structure model we examine the sensitivity of real estate securities in six key global markets to unexpected changes in the level, slop and curvature of the yield curve. Our results confirm the time-sensitive nature of the exposure and sensitivity to interest rates and highlight the importance of considering the entire term structure of interest rates. One issue that is of particular of interest is that despite the 2007-9 financial crisis the importance of unanticipated interest rate risk weakens post 2003. Although the analysis does examine a range of markets the empirical analysis is unable to provide definitive evidence as to whether REIT and property-company markets display heightened or reduced exposure.

Business life cycle and capital structure: evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

This paper uses a panel data-fixed effect approach and data collected from Chinese public manufacturing firms between 1999 and 2011 to investigate the impacts of business life cycle stages on capital structure. We find that cash flow patterns capture more information on business life cycle stages than firm age and have a stronger impact on capital structure decision-making. We also find that the adjustment speed of capital structure varies significantly across life cycle stages and that non-sequential transitions over life cycle stages play an important role in the determination of capital structure. Our study indicates that it is important for policy-makers to ensure that products and financial markets are well-balanced.

Term structure dynamics and no-arbitrage under the Taylor rule

A determinação da taxa de juros estrutura a termo é um dos temas principais da gestão de ativos financeiros. Considerando a grande importância dos ativos financeiros para a condução das políticas econômicas, é fundamental para compreender a estrutura que é determinado. O principal objetivo deste estudo é estimar a estrutura a termo das taxas de juros brasileiras, juntamente com taxa de juros de curto prazo. A estrutura a termo será modelado com base em um modelo com uma estrutura afim. A estimativa foi feita considerando a inclusão de três fatores latentes e duas variáveis ​​macroeconômicas, através da técnica Bayesiana da Cadeia de Monte Carlo Markov (MCMC).

Board of directors and top management team: a study on CEO relative power and financial return

Best corporate governance practices published in the primers of Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission and the Brazilian Corporate Governance Institute promote board independence as much as possible, as a way to increase the effectiveness of governance mechanism (Sanzovo, 2010). Therefore, this paper aims at understanding if what the managerial literature portraits as being self-evident - stricter governance, better performance - can be observed in actual evidence. The question answered is: do companies with a stricter control and monitoring system perform better than others? The method applied in this paper consists on comparing 116 companies in respect to the their independence level between top management team and board directors– being that measured by four parameters, namely, the percentage of independent outsiders in the board, the separation of CEO and chairman, the adoption of contingent compensation and the percentage of institutional investors in the ownership structure – and their financial return measured in terms return on assets (ROA) from the latest Quarterly Earnings release of 2012. From the 534 companies listed in the Stock Exchange of Sao Paulo – Bovespa – 116 were selected due to their level of corporate governance. The title “Novo Mercado” refers to the superior level of governance level within companies listed in Bovespa, as they have to follow specific criteria to assure shareholders ´protection (BM&F, 2011). Regression analyses were conducted in order to reveal the correlation level between two selected variables. The results from the regression analysis were the following: the correlation between each parameter and ROA was 10.26%; the second regression analysis conducted measured the correlation between the independence level of top management team vis-à-vis board directors – namely, CEO relative power - and ROA, leading to a multiple R of 5.45%. Understanding that the scale is a simplification of the reality, the second part of the analysis transforms all the four parameters into dummy variables, excluding what could be called as an arbitrary scale. The ultimate result from this paper led to a multiple R of 28.44%, which implies that the combination of the variables are still not enough to translate the complex reality of organizations. Nonetheless, an important finding can be taken from this paper: two variables (percentage of outside directors and percentage of institutional investor ownership) are significant in the regression, with p-value lower than 10% and with negative coefficients. In other words, counter affirming what the literature very often portraits as being self-evident – stricter governance leads to higher performance – this paper has provided evidences to believe that the increase in the formal governance structure trough outside directors in the board and ownership by institutional investor might actually lead to worse performance. The section limitations and suggestions for future researches presents some reasons explaining why, although supported by strong theoretical background, this paper faced some challenging methodological assumptions, precluding categorical statements about the level of governance – measured by four selected parameters – and the financial return in terms of financial on assets.

The relationship between board of director's nationality diversity and financial performance

Companies are moving to a more international structure; going into new markets and having an increased competition in all fronts. Therefore, the practices that lead companies to a more efficient and competitive position are praised. The management of the workforce comes as one of the main concerns of companies, aiming at performance enhancing and at creating better environments that both attract and maintain the professional talents. In an increasingly international environment, companies tend to look for the specialists and best professionals, regardless of their nationality. This new structure with several different nationalities working together poses new challenges for companies. Understanding if and how a more diverse has a relationship with financial performance is the starting point for better managing this new corporate structure.

Assessing Dodd Frank Effects on banking capital structure and Banker´s Pay structure

The systemic financial crisis that started in 2008 in the United States had some severe effects in the economic activity and required the bailout of financial institutions with the use of taxpayer’s money. It also originated claims for stronger regulatory framework in order to avoid another threat in the financial market. The Dodd Frank Act was proposed and approved in the United States in the aftermath of the crisis and brought, among many other features, the creation of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the tougher inspection of financial institutions with asset above 50 billion dollars. The objective of this work is to study the causal effect of the Dodd Frank Act on the behavior of the treatment group subject to monitoring by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (financial institutions with assets above 50 billion dollars) regarding capital and compensation structure in comparison to the group that was not treated. We use data from Compustat and our empirical strategy is the Regression Discontinuity Design, not usually applied to the banking literature, but very useful for the present work since it allows us to compare the treatment group and the non-treatment group in the year of the enactment of the law (2010). No change of behavior was observed for the Capital Structure. In the Compensation Schemes, however, a decrease was found in the item other compensation for CEOs and CFOs. We also performed a robustness check by running a placebo test on the variables in the year before the law was enacted. No significance was found, which supports the conclusion that our main results were caused by the enactment of the DFA.

Financial guarantees in Brazilian life insurance and pension plans

Recently regulated Brazilian life and pension products offer a benefit structure composed of minimum guaranteed annual rate, in°ation adjustment according to a price index and participation on an investment fund performance. We present a valuation model for these products. We establish a fair condition relationship between minimum guarantees and participation rates, and explore its behavior over a space of maturities, interest rates, and also fund and price index volatilities and correlation. Besides consistency to reference models, we found that the effect of the fund volatility is conditioned to the price index volatility level and the correlation between them.

Estruturas de governança corporativa e financial distress: há relação entre conselho de administração e empresas em financial distress?

Nesta dissertação foi analisada se há uma relação significante entre estruturas de governança (estrutura e composição de conselho) e financial distress. Este trabalho focou neste tema porque os estudos acadêmicos em governança corporativa e sua relação com financial distress ainda são pouco explorados. Além disso, o tema tem relevância no mundo corporativo, pois entender quais estruturas e composições de conselho seriam mais eficientes para evitar financial distress é interessante para diversos stakeholders, principalmente para os acionistas e os credores. Para verificar a existência dessa relação, foram utilizados dados de empresas brasileiras de capital aberto e foram desenvolvidos modelos logit de financial distress. Sendo a variável resposta financial distress, partiu-se de um modelo base com variáveis financeiras de controle e, por etapas, foram adicionadas novos determinantes e combinações dessas variáveis para montar modelos intermediários. Por fim, o modelo final contou com todas as variáveis explicativas mais relevantes. As variáveis de estudo podem ser classificadas em variáveis de estrutura de governança (DUA, GOV e COF), qualidade do conselho (QUA) e estrutura de propriedade (PRO1 e PRO2). Os modelos base utilizados foram: Daily e Dalton (1994a) e um próprio, desenvolvido para modelar melhor financial distress e sua relação com as variáveis de estrutura de governança. Nos diversos modelos testados foram encontradas relações significativas no percentual de conselheiros dependentes (GOV), percentual de conselheiros da elite educacional (QUA), percentual de ações discriminadas (PRO1) e percentual de ações de acionista estatal relevante (PRO2). Portanto, não se descartam as hipóteses de que mais conselheiros dependentes, menos conselheiros da elite educacional e estrutura de propriedade menos concentrada contribuem para uma situação de financial distress futura. Entretanto, as variáveis dummy de dualidade (DUA) e de conselho fiscal (COF) não apresentaram significância estatística.

Estruturas de governança corporativa e financial distress: há relação entre conselho de administração e empresas em financial distress?

Nesta dissertação foi analisada se há uma relação significante entre estruturas de governança (estrutura e composição de conselho) e financial distress. Este trabalho focou neste tema porque os estudos acadêmicos em governança corporativa e sua relação com financial distress ainda são pouco explorados. Além disso, o tema tem relevância no mundo corporativo, pois entender quais estruturas e composições de conselho seriam mais eficientes para evitar financial distress é interessante para diversos stakeholders, principalmente para os acionistas e os credores. Para verificar a existência dessa relação, foram utilizados dados de empresas brasileiras de capital aberto e foram desenvolvidos modelos logit de financial distress. Sendo a variável resposta financial distress, partiu-se de um modelo base com variáveis financeiras de controle e, por etapas, foram adicionadas novos determinantes e combinações dessas variáveis para montar modelos intermediários. Por fim, o modelo final contou com todas as variáveis explicativas mais relevantes. As variáveis de estudo podem ser classificadas em variáveis de estrutura de governança (DUA, GOV e COF), qualidade do conselho (QUA) e estrutura de propriedade (PRO1 e PRO2). Os modelos base utilizados foram: Daily e Dalton (1994a) e um próprio, desenvolvido para modelar melhor financial distress e sua relação com as variáveis de estrutura de governança. Nos diversos modelos testados foram encontradas relações significativas no percentual de conselheiros dependentes (GOV), percentual de conselheiros da elite educacional (QUA), percentual de ações discriminadas (PRO1) e percentual de ações de acionista estatal relevante (PRO2). Portanto, não se descartam as hipóteses de que mais conselheiros dependentes, menos conselheiros da elite educacional e estrutura de propriedade menos concentrada contribuem para uma situação de financial distress futura. Entretanto, as variáveis dummy de dualidade (DUA) e de conselho fiscal (COF) não apresentaram significância estatística

International asymmetries and the design of the International Financial System

Includes bibliography