Do rating models embody correctly the impact of macroeconomic variables on debtors’ solvency, determining a lag in downgrading? In pre-crisis periods, when interest rates increases are recorded as well as decreases in real growth rates, rating assessments fail to register risk increases in...

The Basel Agreements, designed to pursue financial stability, have been instead a cause of instability, revealing fundamental analytical and operational weaknesses. The idea to define a constant capital ratio through complex statistical models implies serious dangers. A radical change is...

The financial crisis and the proposed changes in bank regulation seem to have inverted the trend of declining capital ratios and lower quality capital base which emerged from 2005 to 2007, especially for large Italian listed banks, and have stopped the generous dividend payouts. The recent...

Otc derivatives Counterparty risk has assumed a fundamental role within the risks assumed by Sifis, Sistemically Important Financial Institutions. Different Counterparty risk management procedures have been introduced by regulatory provisions and market best practices. Moreover, the European...

The article examines the determinants of capital-assets ratios for credit unions in the United States, before and after the implementation of current framework for capital adequacy regulation in the year 2000. Credit unions appear to hold capital in excess of what is required by current capital...

The credibility of prudential metrics as proxies for risk, i.e. the backbone of the Basel capital framework, is often called into question. From a regulatory side, ongoing works aim at strengthening the risk-sensitivity of capital requirements but, at the same time, banks’ autonomy is often...

Supervisory fragmentation is a cause of systemic risk, as cooperation amongst national authorities is bound to fail in crisis events. The situation will be different under the Banking Union when the Single Supervisory Mechanism is in place even if it shows some weaknesses: the Ssm includes...

The major Italian banking groups have adopted over the past 5 years the figure of the Chief Risk Officer, with an Area that includes the functions of Risk Management and Compliance. The solutions adopted meet the requirements set out in the regulation for the prudential supervision of banks: the...

The Social Disclosure (Sd), in general, expressed through corporate social reporting can sometimes be reflected only in a series of fulfillment. In this perspective, the research aims to verify, with reference to Cooperative Credit Banks (Bcc) in Italy, if the intensity of Sd is actually...

After the downgrading by Moody’s of the rating assigned to Italy, can credit guarantees Consortia continue to be risk mitigators tools? The UniCredit group experience has led to an internal rating specific to Mutual associations, which allows the bank to identify on an objective basis the...