8 research outputs found
Why do UK banks securitize?
Working paper seriesThe eight years from 2000 to 2008 saw a rapid growth in the use of securitization by UK
banks. We aim to identify the reasons that contributed to this rapid growth. The time period
(2000 to 2010) covered by our study is noteworthy as it covers the pre- nancial crisis credit-
boom, the peak of the nancial crisis and its aftermath. In the wake of the nancial crisis,
many governments, regulators and political commentators have pointed an accusing nger at
the securitization market - even in the absence of a detailed statistical and economic analysis.
We contribute to the extant literature by performing such an analysis on UK banks, fo-
cussing principally on whether it is the need for liquidity (i.e. the funding of their balance
sheets), or the desire to engage in regulatory capital arbitrage or the need for credit risk trans-
fer that has led to UK banks securitizing their assets.
We show that securitization has been signi cantly driven by liquidity reasons. In addition,
we observe a positive link between securitization and banks credit risk. We interpret these
latter ndings as evidence that UK banks which engaged in securitization did so, in part, to
transfer credit risk and that, in comparison to UK banks which did not use securitization, they
had more credit risk to transfer in the sense that they originated lower quality loans and held
lower quality assets. We show that banks which issued more asset-backed securities before the
nancial crisis su¤ered more defaults after the nancial crisis.The eight years from 2000 to 2008 saw a rapid growth in the use of securitization by UK
banks. We aim to identify the reasons that contributed to this rapid growth. The time period
(2000 to 2010) covered by our study is noteworthy as it covers the pre-financial crisis credit-
boom, the peak of the financial crisis and its aftermath. In the wake of the financial crisis,
many governments, regulators and political commentators have pointed an accusing finger at
the securitization market - even in the absence of a detailed statistical and economic analysis.
We contribute to the extant literature by performing such an analysis on UK banks, fo-
cussing principally on whether it is the need for liquidity (i.e. the funding of their balance
sheets), or the desire to engage in regulatory capital arbitrage or the need for credit risk trans-
fer that has led to UK banks securitizing their assets.
We show that securitization has been significantly driven by liquidity reasons. In addition,
we observe a positive link between securitization and banks credit risk. We interpret these
latter findings as evidence that UK banks which engaged in securitization did so, in part, to
transfer credit risk and that, in comparison to UK banks which did not use securitization, they
had more credit risk to transfer in the sense that they originated lower quality loans and held
lower quality assets. We show that banks which issued more asset-backed securities before the
financial crisis suffered more defaults after the financial crisis
Characteristics of Securitizations that Determine Issuers' Retention of the Risks of the Securitized Assets
Search for Pair Production of Second-Generation Scalar Leptoquarks in pp Collisions at root s=7 TeV
A search for pair production of second-generation scalar leptoquarks in
the final state with two muons and two jets is performed using
proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV collected by the CMS
detector at the LHC. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated
luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The number of observed events is in good
agreement with the predictions from the standard model processes. An
upper limit is set on the second-generation leptoquark cross section
times beta(2) as a function of the leptoquark mass, and leptoquarks with
masses below 394 GeV are excluded at a 95% confidence level for beta =
1, where beta is the leptoquark branching fraction into a muon and a
quark. These limits are the most stringent to date