...FINANIAL CRISIS 2008 AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE The business world is questioning whether Corporate Governance has become a mere catchphrase, divorced from the contentious problems it is supposed to solve… MEMBERS: AYUSH KUMAR-030 NIPEKSH I MAHAJAN-082 PRABHAV MISHRA-0 PRATEEK KUMAR-096 VAIBHAV JAIN-164 “Why should a financial engineer be paid four, four times... to a hundred times more than the real engineer? A real engineer build bridges, a financial engineer build, build dreams. And when those dream turn out to be nightmares, other people pay for it.” - Andrew Sheng “Contrary to the vulgar belief that men are motivated primarily by materialistic considerations, we now see the capitalist system being discredited and destroyed all over the world, even though the system has given men the greatest material comforts” - Ayn Rand “In fact, there is ultimately a limit to how much regulation can do. In the final analysis, you could write all the rules you want, but there has to be a philosophy of ethical behaviour that comes from human beings operating in a professional way” – William H. Donaldson, CFA “The global crisis was caused by “the over-50s not knowing what the under-30’s were doing” – Johann Rupert, Remgro Chairman “The first casualty of a downturn is truth” - Financial Times Columnist 30 Sept 2008 Introduction- The banking crisis was triggered by largely unregulated trading of complex financial instruments, including mortgaged-backed...
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...pResented by the society of ActuARies, the cAsuAlty ActuARiAl society And the cAnAdiAn institute of ActuARies Risk Management: The Current Financial Crisis, Lessons Learned and Future Implications Copyright 2008 by the Society of Actuaries. R I s k M a n a g e M e n T: the current financial crisis, lessons learned and future implications introduction the current financial crisis presents a case study of a “financial tsunami” (as former federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan recently called it) on what can go wrong. its ramifications are far-reaching and the lessons learned will be embedded in risk management practices for years to come. As one of the premier enterprise risk professions in practice today, the actuarial profession is sharing its substantial insight into what went wrong and the implications for the future. on behalf of the society of Actuaries, the casualty Actuarial society and the canadian institute of Actuaries, we are pleased to provide a series of essays on Risk Management: The Current Financial Crisis, Lessons Learned and Future Implications. this e-book is the result of a call for essays on the subject coordinated by the following groups: • • • • The Joint Risk Management Section of the Society of Actuaries, Casualty Actuarial Society and Canadian institute of Actuaries The Investment Section of the Society of Actuaries International Network of Actuarial Risk Managers Enterprise Risk Management Institute International ...
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...The Global Roots of the Current Financial Crisis and its Implications for Regulation Anil Kashyap (University of Chicago) Raghuram Rajan (University of Chicago) Jeremy Stein (Harvard University) Where did the current financial crisis come from? Who or what is to blame? How will it be resolved? How do we undertake reforms for the future? These are the questions this paper will seek to answer. The analysis will have three parts. The first is a rough and ready sketch of the global roots of this crisis. Second, we will focus in a more detailed way on why it hit the financial sector, especially banks. Finally, we will end with some suggestions for future regulation, especially capital regulation. I. A Rough Sketch. It is always useful to start with the macroeconomic environment. In a sense, this is a crisis borne out of previous crises. An important difference between the recent period of sustained growth and previous periods is the low level of long term real interest rates over the last 5 years, certainly relative to the last two decades. Long rates fell following the collapse in investment in both emerging markets and developed countries after the crises in 1998 and the ICT bubble in 2001. Emerging market governments became more circumspect and increased budgetary surpluses, even while cutting back on public investment. For instance, in Philippines, investment fell from 24% of GDP in 1996 to 17% in 2006, while its savings rose from 14% to 20%. From borrowing 10% of its...
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...of finance and the government itself have contributed to the financial crisis of the world with a clear view of how it began emerging up till today’s financial world. However, with the help of Matt Damon narrating the story through the documental it is possible to see the reaction of some of the major head finance representatives of the United States whom still today continue contributing to the collapse of the global markets. Nevertheless, the documentary in five enriching parts, blackmails the procedures, interferences, and, provisions that crashed the markets in the USA causing a major impact in global potencies such as Iceland. Inside Job opens up with a tremendous case study of Iceland unfolding how the market crash has caused three of its major banks to collapse. Iceland used to be a stable nation with low levels of criminality, a wise and strong educational system, and powerful in both stability and its financial systems. However, the global crisis of 2008 cost 10 million people to loose their jobs, savings and even their homes. Basically what was causing it wasn’t only its financial crisis but also overpopulation of over 320,000, a GDP of 13 billion and bank losses of 10 billion. In this way comes Alcoa into the picture being able to install their business by completely violating the honor that the system possessed. However, as already been mentioned, three of the largest banks in Iceland were privatized and within only five years they had agreed to borrow a quantity...
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...Subprime Mortgage Crisis 1. What is Subprime Mortgage? A type of mortgage that is normally made out to borrowers with lower credit ratings. As a result of the borrower's lowered credit rating, a conventional mortgage is not offered because the lender views the borrower as having a larger-than-average risk of defaulting on the loan. Lending institutions often charge interest on subprime mortgages at a rate that is higher than a conventional mortgage in order to compensate themselves for carrying more risk. There are several different kinds of subprime mortgage structures available. The most common is the adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), which initially charges a fixed interest rate, and then converts to a floating rate based on an index such as LIBOR, plus a margin. The better known types of ARMs include3/27 and2/28 ARMs. ARMs are somewhat misleading to subprime borrowers in that the borrowers initially pay a lower interest rate. When their mortgages reset to the higher, variable rate, mortgage payments increase significantly. This is one of the factors that lead to the sharp increase in the number of subprime mortgage foreclosures in August of 2006, and the subprime mortgage meltdown that ensued. Many lenders were more liberal in granting these loans from 2004 to 2006 as a result of lower interest rates and high capital liquidity. Lenders sought additional profits through these higher risk loans, and they charged interest rates above prime in order to compensate...
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...New Leaders of Financial Giants – Case of Citi Group and Merrill Lynch: Question 1: Introduction This report will review the precarious positions of Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch at the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis. Both companies had been hit hard by the recent economic problems, and both had recently hired new management in an attempt to navigate through these difficult times. Since risk management failures were viewed as the primary catapult of the crisis, the thinking was that managers with risk management experience would be able to introduce innovative techniques to improve the respective company’s positions. The report will analyze some of the solutions that were proposed, and attempt to apply options analysis through binary trees to quantify these proposals. The Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2008 Before analyzing the current predicaments of the two companies in the report, an understanding of the subprime mortgage crisis (which includes a discussion on MBS’s and CDO’s) is necessary. An entity, known as the ‘Servicer’, issues debt securities called Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and raises funds. The funds are used to grant home loans or mortgages. The borrowers or homeowners make monthly payments to the services. These payments include both principal and interest components. The servicer transfers these payments to Mortgage Backed Security Holders or the investors after deducting some spread which can be viewed as profit margin or...
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...Foreclosure Crisis in Florida and Beyond: Suggested Conflict Resolution Framework For Resolving this Crisis American Dream (or) American Nightmare [pic] [pic] David W. Puckett Email: dpuckett@dvergence.com Skype: david.w.puckett Twitter: davepuckett@twitter.com Phone: 813.727.3583 Introduction Each day there are stories reported in the news about mortgage foreclosures, detailing the single biggest financial crisis to hit the nation that is creating a strangle-hold on our economy and preventing economic recovery. While the entire nation has been stunned, the crisis has disproportionately affected the states of Florida, Nevada, Arizona, California and Georgia; these states were hit with an unprecedented loss of value in residential real estate. According to the leading provider of real estate industry statistics, Realtytrac.com (2011), one in every 611 United States housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month of July 2011 and it appears that the foreclosure processing delays, combined with the smorgasbord of national and state-level foreclosure prevention efforts such as loan modifications, lender-borrower mediations and mortgage payment assistance for the unemployed may be allowing more distressed homeowners to stave off foreclosure.. A CNBC report said that the falloff in foreclosures is not based on a “robust recovery in the housing market but on short-term interventions and delays that will extend the current housing market...
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...The term "subprime" refers to the credit status of the borrower, which is being less than ideal. Subprime lending is a general term that refers to the practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for the best market interest rates because of their deficient credit history. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury guidelines issued in 2001, "Subprime borrowers typically have weakened credit histories that include payment delinquencies i.e. non-payment of the mortgage, and possibly more severe problems such as charge-offs, judgments, and bankruptcies. They may also display reduced repayment capacity as measured by credit scores, debt-to-income ratios, or other criteria that may encompass borrowers with incomplete credit histories." This is when the borrowers have a poor credit history that is they are bad borrowers. Subprime lending is also called B-Paper, near-prime, or second chance lending, as the borrowing is done to customers with a poor credit history or no credit history without any security in return of the money lending. Subprime lending encompasses a variety of credit instruments, including subprime mortgages, subprime car loans, and subprime credit cards, among others. A subprime loan is offered at a rate higher than A-paper loans due to the increased risk. Subprime lenders To access this increasing market, lenders often take on risks associated with lending to people with poor credit ratings or limited credit histories. Subprime loans are considered...
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...S P E C I A L R E P O R T Anatomy of Risk Management Practices in the Mortgage Industry: Lessons for the Future Clifford V. Rossi Anatomy of Risk Management Practices in the Mortgage Industry: Lessons for the Future Clifford V. Rossi Robert H. Smith School of Business University of Maryland May 2010 2 9946 Anatomy of Risk Management Practices in the Mortgage Industry: Lessons for the Future © Research Institute for Housing America May 2010. All rights reserved. Research Institute for Housing America Board of Trustees Chair Teresa Bryce, Esq. Radian Group Inc. Michael W. Young Cenlar FSB Nancee Mueller Wells Fargo Edward L. Hurley Avanath Capital Partners LLC Steve Graves Principal Real Estate Investors Dena Yocom IMortgage Staff Jay Brinkmann, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, Research and Business Development Chief Economist Mortgage Bankers Association Michael Fratantoni, Ph.D. Vice President, Research and Economics Mortgage Bankers Association Anatomy of Risk Management Practices in the Mortgage Industry: Lessons for the Future © Research Institute for Housing America May 2010. All rights reserved. 3 Table of Contents Executive Summary 1. Introduction: Findings and Recommendations 2. A Model for Mortgage Risk Taking: Growth, P / E and the Fallacy of ROE 3. Data and Model Limitations Data Integrity Economic Environment Mortgage Products and Risk Layering Borrower and Counterparty Behavior 4....
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...Subprime mortgage crisis is defined as a nationwide banking emergency that coincided with the U.S. recession of December 2007 – June 2009. This incident had been analyzed from various aspects as it redefined the world economy and the largest banking and financial institutions of the world. A major American financial services company Citigroup suffered the crisis caused by manifold contributing reasons that could be triggered and prevented prior to the crisis, is analyzed here. Secondary data had been used here to formulate the thorough study from sources like Reuters, Sonntag, Barnett-Hart. Excessive issuance of CDOs by Citigroup to reallocate risk, regulate capital relief and earn greater profit was the substantial reason of its distress. Besides insufficient risk management resulting from risk managers’ cronyism and retransfer of huge amount of troubled assets back into its balance sheet to avoid the forego of its institutional clients due to shadow banking added to the situation. The crisis resulted in a numerical loss of $18.72 billion and around 100000 job cuts during 2008 period. Government aid like bail-out and internal restructure was implemented by this giant institution to overcome the distress. An analysis, backed by the study of the overall mishap suggests that, providing Citigroup with independent risk management, credit rating of its internal departments with stricter regulations, audits and checking rather than profit oriented private rating agencies and deeper...
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...SUBPRIME MORTGAGE CRISIS The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was a set of events and conditions that led to the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages. What is a subprime mortgage? A subprime mortgage is a type of loan granted to individuals with poor credit histories, who, as a result of their deficient credit ratings, would not be able to qualify for conventional mortgages. Because subprime borrowers present a higher risk for lenders, subprime mortgages charge interest rates above the prime lending rate. There are several different kinds of subprime mortgage structures available. The most common is the adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), which initially charges a fixed interest rate, and then converts to a floating rate based on an index, plus a margin. The better known types of ARMs include 3/27 and 2/28 ARMs. What lead to the US subprime mortgage crisis? ARMs are somewhat misleading to subprime borrowers in that the borrowers initially pay a lower interest rate. When their mortgages reset to the higher, variable rate, mortgage payments increase significantly. This is one of the factors that lead to the sharp increase in the number of subprime mortgage foreclosures in August of 2006, and the subprime mortgage meltdown that ensued. Many lenders were more liberal in granting these loans from 2004...
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...he earance Center, I Inc., 222 Rosewo Drive, ood Danvers, MA 01923, website www.copyright A e t.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be r addressed to t Permissions Department, Joh Wiley & Son Inc., 111 Rive Street, Hobok NJ 07030the hn ns, er ken, 5774, (201)74 48-6011, fax (20 01)748-6008, we ebsite http://www w.wiley.com/go/ /permissions. To order book or for custom service, pleas call 1(800)-CA ks mer se ALL-WILEY (2 225-5945). Printed in the United States of America. e o ISBN 978- 0-470-56516-2 The Financial Crisis: 2007-2009 Objectives Understand the major influences that led to the 2007 2009 Financial Crises Describe the role that agency cost issues played in the financing of mortgages to developing mortgage backed securities and other financially engineered securities based on mortgages Describe the timeline of events that unfolded during the financial crisis Explain how financial managers must consider the risk, not only the return potential, of their activities Discuss the role of government intervention in the context of economy theory and practice INTRODUCTION How did the...
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...considered a blessing and a curse since time immemorial. It could be argued, especially with those of a theological mindset, that religions introduced the first forms of regulations. The penalty for deviations were well laid out, and often times had precedent, but exceptions were always sought and loopholes were often explored. Modern economics, regardless of which school of thought is followed, can be compared to a religion1. There are tenets, or commandments. There are different religions, from Keynes, to Marx to Milton. Without extending this analogy, it is relevant to point out that economic theories either rely on governments to participate wholeheartedly in the state of economic affairs by regulating businesses, corporations and industries, or to let the system weed out the weaker in favor of the stronger. In the United States, bitter past experience shaped the regulations surrounding businesses. The Great Depression was the first indicator that the system needed to be made more robust, which in turn led to regulations that formed the base of what our current system looks like today2. The Glass-Steagall Act (GSA) was designed to separate investment and commercial banking activities3. The Act had many detractors, with many claiming it to be an over-reaction to the financial crisis in the 1930s. It was repealed in 1999 with the establishment of the Financial Modernization Act (also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), which “repealed all...
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...1) Throughout this class we have discussed the conduct of the major players at financial institutions and their role in leading their companies to the brink of failure, and in some cases have been successful (Bear Stearns, Lehman & AIG). With that as a starting point how important is character and ethics? What role(s) do you think boards of directors should play and did they exercise their fiduciary responsibilities to the shareholders and employees? Money is an important character in various financial institutions, but by itself is not necessarily evil. Rather, it is something that is used to trade goods and services. We call it "currency", and it allows us to do business between organizations. Unfortunately, that is the sterile dictionary-type definition but it does not capture all the issues that are involved with finances. In corporate life, just like in many other realms, money causes all sorts of problems. People make incredibly bad decisions because of money, and plenty of people have gone to prison because of their money-related behavior. This is why people always approach money with a certain amount of uneasiness. Here are a few thoughts on why financial management ethics are important. The numbers do not have a soul, so they cannot govern themselves. They must be managed by people. Ethics are important because finances make people do some strange things. The spreadsheet does not have a conscience, and the goal of working with spreadsheets is to make numbers add...
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...2 | Financial Subprime Mortgage Crisis Causes | 3 | Introduction & Background to the Situation of the Egyptian Economy prior to the Global Financial crisis | 10 | Financial Subprime Mortgage Crisis Impacts on Egypt | 13 | The Egyptian Economy & the crisis | 21 | The Conclusion & Solutions | 23 | The References | 27 | The Introduction In the second half of 2008, the world economy went through a serious financial upheaval that sparked off in the United States and spread to Europe and the rest of the world. The negative consequences of this financial crisis had bitten the Egyptian economy in many fields. Egypt’s growth rate witnessed setbacks and may have posted its slowest annual growth in half a decade in 2008–2009 as the global crisis hit revenue from tourism, migrant labor remittances, the Suez Canal, export revenues, and investment. The severity of the crisis and its uncertainties demonstrated the need for urgent action to restore financial stability, lead the economic recovery and secure a sustainable future for the country. This paper therefore critically discusses the current global financial crisis and its impact on Egypt. It presents an overview of the Egyptian economy prior to the crisis, followed by an assessment of the depth and impact of the crisis on sectors of the Egyptian economy. Additionally, the paper highlights the actions taken by the Egyptian government to weather the effects of the crisis and concludes with some policy recommendations...
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