Asset securitization in Europe

Until the late 1980s, asset securitisation was an US-American finance technique. Meanwhile this technique has been used also in some European countries, although to a much lesser extent. While some of them have adopted or developed their legal and regulatory framework, others remain on earlier stages. That may be because of the lack of economic incentives, but also because of remaining regulatory or legal impediments. The following overview deals with the legal and regulatory environment in five selected European countries. It is structured as follows: First, this finance technique will be described in outline to the benefit of the reader who might not be familiar with it. A further part will report the recent development and the underlying economic reasons that drive this development. The main part will then deal with international aspects and give an overview of some legal and regulatory issues in five European legislations. Tax and accounting questions are, however, excluded. Concluding remarks follow

Value Relevance of Control-based Consolidated Financial Statements

The study examines whether the switch from ownership-based guidelines for control under SSAP-8 to the principles-based guidelines (power and benefits) of FRS-37 increased the value relevance of consolidated financial statements in New Zealand. The adoption of FRS-37 led to an increase in value relevance of consolidated assets and liabilities (at the 5 percent level). Only weak evidence was found to support the view that FRS-37 was not effective (less value relevant) for entities with a large number of subsidiaries (as a proxy for investment complexity) and associates are less value relevant. The is evidence that investors view non-controlling as a liability, which does not support its presentation as equity (under IFRS 10)

The lessons from QE and other 'unconventional' monetary policies - evidence from the Bank of England

This paper investigates the effectiveness of the ‘quantitative easing’ policy, as implemented by the Bank of England in March 2009. Similar policies had been previously implemented in Japan, the U.S. and the Eurozone. The effectiveness is measured by the impact of Bank of England policies (including, but not limited to QE) on nominal GDP growth – the declared goal of the policy, according to the Bank of England. Unlike the majority of the literature on the topic, the general-to-specific econometric modeling methodology (a.k.a. the ‘Hendry’ or ‘LSE’ methodology) is employed for this purpose. The empirical analysis indicates that QE as defined and announced in March 2009 had no apparent effect on the UK economy. Meanwhile, it is found that a policy of ‘quantitative easing’ defined in the original sense of the term (Werner, 1994) is supported by empirical evidence: a stable relationship between a lending aggregate (disaggregated M4 lending, i.e. bank credit for GDP transactions) and nominal GDP is found. The findings imply that BoE policy should more directly target the growth of bank credit for GDP-transactions

A Proposal to Finance Long-Term Care Services through Medicare with an Income Tax Surcharge

Proposes expanding Medicare to cover comprehensive long-term care services, including home care and custodial nursing home care, and financing this expansion of benefits with a surcharge on federal income taxes

Deposit Insurance During EU Accession

The paper presents a brief review of the systems of deposit insurance in accession countries, comparing their level of harmonization with the perspective of their EU integration. Studying the different practices of deposit insurance in the context of developing financial safety nets in future Europe we have found that: (i) there is overinsurance of deposits in accession countries, and (ii) that this could lead to increasing moral hazard, incentives deformation and increasing costs of banking intermediation in the whole euro area.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40003/3/wp617.pd

Doing Business in South Africa

[Excerpt] This brochure illustrates important features of doing business in South Africa. The legal system within which business operates is closely based on overseas, particularly English, models. The concepts and rules will be familiar to overseas investors and trading partners