Andreas A. Jobst

The Economics of Islamic Finance and Securitization

Islamic lending transactions are governed by the precepts of the shariah, which bans interest and stipulates that income must be derived as return from entrepreneurial investment. Since Islamic finance is predicated on asset backing and specific credit participation in identified business risk, structuring shariah-compliant securitization seems straightforward. This paper explains the fundamental legal principles of Islamic finance, which includes the presentation of a valuation model that helps distil the essential economic characteristics of shariah-compliant synthetication of conventional finance. In addition to a brief review of the current state of market development, the examination of pertinent legal and economic implications of shariah compliance on the configuration of securitization transactions informs a discussion of the most salient benefits and drawbacks of Islamic securitization.

Islamic bond issuance: what sovereign debt managers need to know

Recent years have witnessed a surge in the issuance of Islamic capital market securities (sukuk) by corporates and public sector entities amid growing demand for alternative investments. As the sukuk market continues to develop, new challenges and opportunities for sovereign debt managers and capital market development arise. This paper reviews the key developments in the sukuk market and informs the debate about challenges and opportunities going forward.

Macroeconomic fundamentals, price discovery, and volatility dynamics in emerging bond markets.

This study characterizes volatility dynamics in external emerging bond markets and examines how prices and volatility respond to news about macroeconomic fundamentals. As in mature bond markets, macroeconomic surprises in external emerging bond markets are found to a¤ect both conditional returns and volatility, with the effects on volatility being more pronounced and longer lasting than those on prices. Yet the process of information absorption tends to be more drawn out than in mature bond markets. International and regional macroeconomic news is at least as important as local news for both asset valuations and volatility dynamics in external emerging bond markets.

Sovereign Securitization in Emerging Markets

Over many years, securitization has proven to be an expedient and highly flexible refinancing tool for corporations and public-sector entities that seek a more accurate capital-market based valuation of asset performance. After successful securitization by public-sector entities in advanced countries, sovereigns in emerging economies are also becoming adept at securitization as an efficient means of asset-liability management. This article critically surveys the recent developments of sovereign securitization in emerging markets and informs a more specific debate about the attendant infrastructural, legal, and regulatory challenges. Amid higher risk premia in a changing interest rate cycle, the current trend of greater investor differentiation in emerging markets creates a benign environment for sovereign securitization to accommodate continued demand for highly rated debt by institutional investors.

Asset securitisation as a risk management and funding tool: What small firms need to know

Purpose –The paper surveys the risks and rewards of asset securitisation and illustrates how this structured finance technique can lift credit constraints to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as banks to turn more conservative in their lending in response to more risk-sensitive capital requirements for credit risk. Design/methodology/approach -The mechanics of securitisation provide an analytical framework and perspective for our analysis of conditions for sustainable SME securitisation and its potential contribution to greater risk diversification of both issuers and investors. The paper also elicits lessons to be learned for essential regulatory and policy measures to guide a sound development of securitisation markets from an empirical review of SME securitisation in Germany. Findings - The paper finds that the structural versatility of securitisation offers economic benefits irrespective of the configuration of the financial system. The development of a viable securitisation market for SME-related claims in a bank-based financial system is likely to require financial sector initiatives, whose scope and intensity might be enhanced by development agencies. Orchestrated policy efforts make for a benign strategy to incubate SME securitisation in a timely fashion, while keeping legal uncertainty and economic attrition to a minimum. Originality/value - As opposed to previous papers, the paper defines and discusses SME securitisation from both the perspective of bank- and firm-sponsored securitisation and issue hands-on recommendations for its efficient implementation.

It's all in the data – consistent operational risk measurement and regulation

Purpose - Amid increased size and complexity of the banking industry, operational risk has a greater potential to occur in more harmful ways than many other sources of risk. This paper seeks to provide a succinct overview of the current regulatory framework of operational risk under the New Basel Accord with a view to inform a critical debate about the influence of data collection, loss reporting, and model specification on the consistency of risk-sensitive capital rules. Design/methodology/approach - The papers approach is to investigate the regulatory implications of varying characteristics of operational risk and different methods to identify operational risk exposure. Findings - The findings reveal that effective operational risk measurement hinges on how the reporting of operational risk losses and the model sensitivity of quantitative methods affect the generation of consistent risk estimates. Originality/value - The presented findings offer tractable recommendations for a more coherent and consistent regulation of operational risk.

Measuring Systemic Risk-Adjusted Liquidity (SRL) — A Model Approach

Little progress has been made so far in addressing—in a comprehensive way—the negative externalities caused by excessive maturity transformation and the implications for effective liquidity regulation of banks. The SRL model combines option pricing theory with market information and balance sheet data to generate probabilistic measure of systemic liquidity risk. It enhances price-based liquidity regulation by linking a bank’s maturity mismatch impacting the stability of its funding with those characteristics of other banks, subject to individual changes in risk profiles and common changes in market conditions impacting funding and market liquidity risk. This approach can then be used (i) to quantify an individual institution’s time-varying contribution to expected losses from system-wide liquidity shortfalls and (ii) to price insurance premia that provide incentives for banks to internalize the social cost of their individual funding decisions.

Asian equity markets: growth, opportunities, and challenges

Asian equity markets have grown significantly in size since the early 1990s, driven by strong international investor inflows, growing regional financial integration, capital account liberalization, and structural improvements to markets. The development of equity markets provides a more diversified set of channels for financial intermediation to support growth, thus bolstering medium-term financial stability. At the same time, as highlighted by the May–June 2006 market corrections, the increasing role of stock markets potentially changes the nature of macroeconomic and financial stability risks, as well as the policy requirements for dealing with these risks.

A Framework for Macroprudential Bank Solvency Stress Testing: Application to S-25 and Other G-20 Country FSAPs

The global financial crisis has placed the spotlight squarely on bank stress tests. Stress tests conducted in the lead-up to the crisis, including those by IMF staff, were not always able to identify the right risks and vulnerabilities. Since then, IMF staff has developed more robust stress testing methods and models and adopted a more coherent and consistent approach. This paper articulates the solvency stress testing framework that is being applied in the IMF’s surveillance of member countries’ banking systems, and discusses examples of its actual implementation in FSAPs to 18 countries which are in the group comprising the 25 most systemically important financial systems (“S-25”) plus other G-20 countries. In doing so, the paper also offers useful guidance for readers seeking to develop their own stress testing frameworks and country authorities preparing for FSAPs. A detailed Stress Test Matrix (STeM) comparing the stress test parameters applied in each of these major country FSAPs is provided, together with our stress test output templates.

An Investigation of Some Macro-Financial Linkages of Securitization

Policy-makers have attributed the scale of the credit crisis and its profound impact on money markets (as well as financial sector stability) to the fast rise of securitization and the way it has arguably complicated both the conduct of monetary policy and the effect of interest rate transmission to the real economy. In our study, we examine whether financial innovation, specifically through securitization, has altered the nature of some macro-financial linkages, often with considerable policy implications. We find that securitization activity in the United States (mature market) and South Africa (emerging market) has indeed dampened the interest rate elasticity of real output via the balance sheet channel (while decreasing the interest rate pass-through from policy rates to market rates). That being said, current reservations about securitization do not invalidate the fact that securitization activity helps cushion the immediate impact of interest rate shocks to loan origination, which might be particularly effective in EM countries where poorly developed capital markets provide few alternatives to bank lending.