The large presence of global banks in Hong Kong offers a well suited empirical setting to study the capital management of foreign bank subsidiaries from a host country perspective. Specifically, this paper uses the trade-off theory of leverage to investigate whether the leverage dynamics of...

The international transmission of shocks in the global financial system has always been an important issue for policy makers. Different types of foreign shocks have different effects and policy implications. In this paper, we examine the effects of the recent U.S. financial crisis and the...

This paper proposes a model to estimiate option-implied correlation embedded in options on the iTraxx Europe indexes as a measure of the spillover effect of default risk between the financial and corporate sectors in Europe. The correlation structure between the iTraxx Financials and...

Following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in mid-September 2008, there were severe disruptions in international money markets and banks reportedly faced severe liquidity shocks in particular US dollar funding shortages, prompting central banks around the world to adopt unprecedented policy...

The international transmission of shocks in the global financial system has always been an important issue for policy makers. Different types of foreign shocks have different effects and policy implications. In this paper, we examine the effects of the recent U.S. financial crisis and the...

Using a non-Gaussian affine term-structure model, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of the date-based forward guidance at the zero lower bound. The model extracts the expected dynamics of two state variables (the short-term interest rate and its mean) embedded in the entire Treasury yield...

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...