In this paper we stress-test credit portfolios of 28 German banks based on a Mertontype multi-factor credit risk model. The ad-hoc stress scenario is an economic downturn in the automobile industry that constitutes an exceptional but plausible event suggested by historical data. Rather than on a...

The Italian and German banking systems shared similar characteristics early in the 1990s but have evolved in different directions since then: Italy privatized its publicly-owned banks while Germany has maintained a large share of state-owned savings banks. Contemporaneously, banks in both...

Most previous research on efficiency in banking takes a regulatory perspective. In contrast, this paper investigates the empirical relation between efficiency and profitability in five large economies of the European Union during the period 1998-2005 and discusses the results from the...

The German Commercial Code (HGB) allows banks to build visible reserves for general banking risks according to section 340g HGB. These GBR reserves may, in addition to their risk provisioning function, be used to enhance capital endowment, for internal financing, signaling or earnings management...

Developments in risk-transfer instruments and risk management techniques in the last two decades have fundamentally changed how banks manage their assets and liabilities. In this document we show that, for all three sectors of German universal banks (private commercial banks, savings banks, and...

This paper gives an overview over corporate governance and banking regulation in Germany. Particular attention is put on legal and regulatory changes that were made in response to the financial market crisis. The paper shows that the changes mainly focus on the remuneration of managers and on...

After decades of steady liberalisation and financial market development, emerging capital markets experienced unparalleled capital inflows in the aftermath of the emerging markets crisis in the 1990s. This paper studies portfolio investment decisions of German banks in 30 emerging capital...

Die deutsche Bankenbranche ist mit ihrer schlechten Kosteneffizienz im internationalen Wettbewerb weit zurückgefallen. Der globale Wettbewerbsdruck zwingt die Kreditinstitute, ihre Kostensituation zu verbessern. Die Konzentration auf Kernkompetenzen sowie die Optimierung der...

Aktuell hat der Bankensektor - und vor allem die Großbanken - eine Krise durchzustehen. Schon seit längerem ist aber der Wettbewerb zwischen den Banken härter geworden. Wie hat sich die Marktstruktur im Bankensektor seit Anfang der 90er Jahre verändert? Welche Anpassungen an die...