Given the deleveraging process in the banking sector, banks were reluctant to lend funds in the interbank market because of uncertainty about their own future need for funds during the financial crisis of 2007 - 2009. Aggregate liquidity then declined. This paper investigates the impact of the...

Hong Kong¡¯s Linked Exchange Rate system (LERS) has been in operation for 25 years during which time many other fixed exchange rate systems have succumbed to shocks and/or speculative attacks. This fact alone suggests that the LERS is a robust system which enjoys a large measure of credibility...

Significant deviations from covered interest parity were observed during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. This paper finds that before the failure of Lehman Brothers the market-wide funding liquidity risk was the main determinant of these deviations in terms of the premiums on swap-implied US...

Residential mortgage rates in Hong Kong have fallen to a historic low level since late 2004, largely because of severe competition and the prevailing exceptionally low funding cost of the banks. Because of the abundance of liquidity in the banking system, HIBOR is at an abnormally deep discount...

This paper proposes a path-dependent approach for estimating realignment probabilities of targeted exchange rates based on first-passage-time distributions instead of the commonly used path-independent approach. We consider that path dependency is an intrinsic characteristic of realignment risk...

This paper assesses whether agency ratings and market-based default risk measures are consistent for East Asian banks during the period 1996 to 2006. While the market-based measures are broadly consistent with the credit rating assessments for banks in developed economies, the discrepancy...

This paper presents a benchmarking model for validation of default probabilities of listed companies for Basel II purposes. The model is based on the recent studies on the predictive capability of structural credit risk models. Benchmark ratings and one-year default probabilities are assigned to...

Currency option traders usually use the Black-Scholes model in which the exchange rate follows a lognormal process. However, it is found that exchange rates may follow a mean-reverting process instead, for example, certain currencies are constrained to move inside target zones or under a...

This paper proposes a path-dependent approach for estimating maximum appreciations of the renminbi expected by the market based on first-passage-time distributions. Using market data of the renminbi spot exchange rates, non-deliverable forward rates and currency option prices from 21 July 2005...

This paper investigates the determinants of variations in the yield spreads (swap spreads) between Hong Kong dollar interest rate swaps and Exchange Fund paper for a period from July 2002 to April 2008. A vector error-correction model is used to analyse the impact of various shocks on swap...