...Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative University of New Mexico http://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu Banking Industry Meltdown: The Ethical and Financial Risks of Derivatives INTRODUCTION The 2008–2009 global recession was caused in part by a failure of the financial industry to take appropriate responsibility for its decision to utilize risky and complex financial instruments. Corporate cultures were built on rewards for taking risks rather than rewards for creating value for stakeholders. Unfortunately, most stakeholders, including the public, regulators, and the mass media, do not always understand the nature of the financial risks taken on by banks and other institutions to generate profits. Problems in the subprime mortgage markets sounded the alarm in the 2008–2009 economic downturn. Very simply, the subprime market was created by making loans to people who normally would not qualify based on their credit ratings. The debt from these loans was often repackaged and sold to other financial institutions in order to take it off lenders’ books and reduce their exposure. When the real estate market became overheated, many people were no longer able to make the payments on their variable rate mortgages. When consumers began to default on payments, prices in the housing market dropped and the values of credit default swaps (the repackaged mortgage debt, also known as CDSs) lost significant value. The opposite was supposed to happen. CDSs were sold as a method of insuring against loss. These...
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...TO FAIL? WILLIAM RYBACK LEHMAN BROTHERS: TOO BIG TO FAIL? Copyright by the Toronto Leadership Centre. This case was prepared exclusively for a class discussion at a Banking, Insurance or Securities session offered by the Toronto Centre. Information has been summarized and should not be regarded as complete or accurate in every detail. The text should be considered as class exercise material and in no way be used to reach conclusions about the nature or behaviour of any of the persons or institutions mentioned.. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form without the permission of the Toronto Leadership Centre for Financial Sector Supervision. Sources: This document is based on information that was in the public domain at the times mentioned or which became public after the resolution of the issues. It does not include information confidential to the financial institution involved. 1 LEHMAN BROTHERS: TOO BIG TO FAIL? WILLIAM RYBACK This case study is written and presented by William Ryback, former special advisor to the Financial Supervisory Service in Seoul, Korea; Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; and career bank supervisor in the United States. The material presented is derived from public media sources. INTRODUCTION In this case study an example of a large bank failure and its after effects on the financial markets is presented and raises issues relating...
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...Parker J Investment Banking Even though Bear was involved with investment trades around the world, the Fed did not grant Bear a government bailout. The Fed did step in to help maintain stability for the market, but LTCM for Bear was out of luck. Bear differed from its downward pressure on global securities prices, market stability, the possibility and probability to crash fast and hard, and the market environment was simply too hectic. Well first and foremost, the biggest change that could have been made, would be to hold the bridge tournament a couple months earlier. I believe that would have changed the outcome of Bear Stearns and allowed Cayne to save the day. All joking aside, from reading the article or case study, CDO’s and ARM’s were not the only destruction of Bear, just the final blow. Similar to what is happening in China right now with failing/decreasing hedge funds, Bear called in $500 million of short term debt to cover its losses from an unprofitable hedge fund. There was also a $38 million dollar fine paid to the SEC for fraudulent behavior. They were caught up in the CDO craze like everyone else and accepted way too many mortgages without knowing the details. Cayne must not have grasped the situation in its entirety. I can’t believe he announced they had $11.4 billion in cash and was now taking the situation seriously. The hole was much deeper than that. March 10, 2008, I believe, is where they were caught in the biggest fraud. Even though they didn’t...
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...subprime mortgage lenders. Between the year 2004 and 2006 Leman Brothers real estate business enabled revenues in the capital market to increase by 56%, giving the firm a securitized 146$ billion in mortgages in 2006. In 2007 the firm reported a net income of a record 4.2 billion on revenue of 19.3 billion (Case study p.1). Everything was going well for Lehman Brothers between 2005 and 2007. In beginning of 2007 Lehman’s stock prices had reached a high record. Unfortunately soon after that subprime mortgages began to default. Stocks for Lehman Brothers dropped dramatically after the default in subprime loans and from the start of the crisis. During the default in the subprime loans, Lehman Brother’s closed its subprime lender, eliminating 1,200 jobs in 23 of their locations. During the crisis in 2007 Lehman Brother’s leverage ratio jumped to 31 from 24 in 2004 (Case Study p.2). The leverage ratio shows how much more risky the company became. After Bear Stearns (second largest underwriter of mortgage backed securities) nearly collapsed on March 17, 2008 Lehman Brother’s suffered a 48% loss in their shares and it was expected that they might fail as well (Case Study p.3). In Lehman’s second quarter they announced a that they suffered a 2.8 billion dollar loss. They also announced that they had raised their liquidity pool, decreased their gross assets...
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...Australian School of Business Banking and Finance FINS3630 BANK FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Course Outline Semester 2, 2012 FINS3630 – BANK FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 1 Table of Contents PART A: COURSE-SPECIFIC INFORMATION 1 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 3 STAFF CONTACT DETAILS COURSE DETAILS Teaching Times and Locations Units of Credit Summary of Course Course Aims and Relationship to Other Courses Student Learning Outcomes LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 7 8 9 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 14 3.1 Approach to Learning and Teaching in the Course 3.2 Learning Activities and Teaching Strategies 4 ASSESSMENT 4.1 Formal Requirements 4.2 Assessment Details 5 6 7 8 9 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 10 11 COURSE RESOURCES COURSE EVALUATION AND DEVELOPMENT COURSE SCHEDULE ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND CONDUCT Workload Attendance General Conduct and Behaviour Occupational Health and Safety Keeping Informed SPECIAL CONSIDERATION AND SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMINATIONS STUDENT RESOURCES AND SUPPORT PART B: KEY POLICIES, STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND SUPPORT FINS3630 – BANK FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 2 PART A: COURSE-SPECIFIC INFORMATION 1 STAFF CONTACT DETAILS Lecturer-in-charge: Dr. Lixiong Guo Room: ASB East Wing 363 (Note: Please use the ASB entrance next to the University Bookstore) Phone No: 9385 5773 Email: lixiong.guo@unsw.edu.au Consultation Times: Tuesday 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm (or by appointment) Tutor names: A full list of tutors will be posted...
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...interest rates dramatically. Once interest rates dropped the economy was overflowing with money which lead lenders to be able to provide mortgage loans to, previously, undesirable borrowers. Now the demand for houses rose & so did the prices for the houses making these subprime loans attractive to lenders because of the high return. So the Banks & investment houses continued to invest in mortgage securities but the financial institutions did not maintain enough reserves in case the housing market crashed. Naturally, the housing market came crashing down leaving borrowers “upside down” in their loans & they were forced to foreclose. When this happened, the banks became unwilling to lend money so funds were not available for businesses. Without funds for everyday operations, businesses struggled causing layoffs & raising the unemployment rate. 2. What steps did the Federal government and the Federal Reserve take to mitigate the crisis? The Federal Reserve bailed out Bear Stearns & AIG. The U.S. Department of the Treasury seized Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. Congress passes the economic bailout plan TARP which spent $700 billion investing in banks & bailing out the auto industry. Congress also passed an $825 billion economic stimulus package called the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act which included cutting taxes, building infrastructure, & investing in green energy. 3. Compare and contrast microeconomics and macroeconomics. How do...
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...more than 158 years is no longer in business. On September 15th 2008, the Lehman Brothers, which was once know as one of the biggest investment banks, provided that it was going to file for bankruptcy protection (Mamudi). This news was received by the world at the time the market was expecting that someone will come out and help this organization. The bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers was not expected by anyone, and many people hoped that either a private company or the government was going to bail out the firm and prevent the bankruptcy move. Before that, there were talks indicating that, Barclays bank and Bank of Africa wanted to take over the investment bank (Sorkin). However, other organizations like the Federal Reserve that aided Bear Stearns to deal with the US Treasury were not willing to help the Lehman Brothers with their problem (Sorkin). The firm filed for bankruptcy with about $639 billion in assets and about $619 billion in debt, which makes its bankruptcy filing the largest in history, while its assets surpassed the assets of the previous bankrupt giants like Enron and WorldCom. According to Qatinah (2012), the organization was the fourth largest US investment bank at the time it collapsed, with more than 25,000 employees. The history of the Lehman Brothers can be traced back to 1844 when Henry Lehman travelled to the US for Bavaria and decided to settle in Montgomery, Alabama. He opened store “H. Lehman” that dealt in dry goods. The name of the firm was changed...
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...LOCKHEED TRI STAR CASE STUDY 10/18/2010 Group #8 Case Write-Up Lockheed Tri Star Case Study EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Although highly regarded by the military, Lockheed sought to move into the lucrative civilian commercial aviation sector and compete with Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus. Lockheed began design and testing in 1966 on their entry, the “Tri Star”, which boasted a range of over 6,000 miles with nearly 400 passengers and speeds of close to 600 mph. They had already invested nearly $900 million in development costs. Carried by state of the art Rolls Royce turbofan engines, the L-1011 was by all accounts, a technological winner and might be the company’s ticket back to solvency. The summer of 1971 found the once formidable company on the brink of disaster. Despite the nearly a $1 billion in sunk costs, Lockheed was in need of $250 million more to bring the plane to market, but its bankers would not commit without federal loan guarantees. Spokespersons for Lockheed claimed before Congress that the Tri-Star program was economically sound and that their problem was mere liquidity crisis. However, opposition to the guarantee focused on estimated break-even sales – the number of jets that would need to be sold for total revenue to cover all accumulated costs. This case illustrates the importance of NPV analysis in capital budgeting. We examined the decision to invest in the Tri-Star project by forecasting the cash flow associated with the project...
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...There have been four serious financial crises and countless more corporate scandals with global implications in just the last decade. All of them driven by greed and corruption, all of them led by dynamic, charismatic business leaders who initially showed fantastic promise, innovation and financial leadership. And it seems with the most recent of these crises, many of the key players in the 2008 global recession have not only not been punished, but are still in the same positions of power and able to continue their transgressions. Here are some interesting highlights of the last decade: Enron scandal (2001): Andrew Fastow the CFO of Enron along with Kenneth Lay the Chairman and Jeffrey Skilling the CEO develop an offbalancesheet mark to market fraud that loses $11 billion and bankrupts Enron. It is the largest bankruptcy reorganization in US history at the time. They are charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, false statements, insider trading and money laundering. Fastow serves 6 years in prison, Lay passes away before sentencing and Skilling is sentenced to 24 years in prison. WorldCom scandal (2005): Bernard Ebbers the CEO of WorldCom loses $100 billion of shareholder value in the largest accounting scandal in US history (until Madoff). Ebbers is charged with securities fraud and conspiracy and is serving 25 years in prison. Bernard Madoff (2008): Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC heads a $50 billion ponzi scheme, the largest in history, and is charged with securities fraud...
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...Table of Contents INTORDUCTION 2 A UNIFIED SYSTEMIC REGULATOR 3 CLOSING THE INFORMATION GAP 4 REGULATION OF RETIREMENT SAVINGS 4 CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS 6 EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION REFORM 9 RECAPITILIZATION THREW CONTINGENT CAPITAL 10 IMPROVING RESOLUTION OPTIONS 11 CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS, CLEARINGHOUSES, AND EXCHANGES 12 PRIME BROKERS AND RUNS 13 FINAL WORD 14 REFRENCES 16 INTORDUCTION The Squam Lake Report is a brief volume that consists of the recommendations of a think tank of 15 leading financial economists in an attempt to provide direction on financial system reforms that might help anticipate and alleviate future Systemic Crisis. The report was written in 2008 in response to the crisis that was ongoing at that time. It is good to note that getting 15 scholars to agree on 37 recommendations is something worth of appraisal. However, one cannot but point that the report is somehow disjoint in its arrangement of chapters. I articulate that this slight disorder is because of the limitations of making 15 experts agree. This disjoint attribute has not prevented the report from being very constructive and direct in addressing very important policies and sensible issues relevant to reform. The paper has two central principles that the recommendation have been built on. The first is that policymakers have to consider how new regulations will affect not only individual firms, but also the financial setup as a whole. The second principal states that firms should...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 24, Number 1—Winter 2010—Pages 93–118 Did Fair-Value Accounting Contribute to the Financial Crisis? Christian Laux and Christian Leuz I n its pure form, fair-value accounting involves reporting assets and liabilities on the balance sheet at fair value and recognizing changes in fair value as gains and losses in the income statement. When market prices are used to determine fair value, fair-value accounting is also called mark-to-market accounting. Some critics argue that fair-value accounting exacerbated the severity of the 2008 financial crisis. The main allegations are that fair-value accounting contributes to excessive leverage in boom periods and leads to excessive write-downs in busts. The write-downs due to falling market prices deplete bank capital and set off a downward spiral, as banks are forced to sell assets at “fire sale” prices, which in turn can lead to contagion as prices from asset fire sales of one bank become relevant for other banks. These arguments are often taken at face value, but evidence on problems created by fair-value accounting is rarely provided. We discuss these arguments and examine descriptive and empirical evidence that sheds light on the role of fair-value accounting for U.S. banks in the crisis. While large losses can clearly cause problems for banks and other financial institutions, the relevant question for our article is whether reporting these losses under fair-value accounting created additional...
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...identifies common pitfalls in many current whistleblower and compliance programs, and it offers recommendations on how audit committees can strengthen them. Government investigations, bankruptcy receiver reports, and numerous books provide a rich source of information about the major corporate disasters of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Although the financial implosions, starting with Enron and ending with Lehman Brothers, have significant differences, one common corporate governance theme can be seen: The board, and, in particular, the independent directors, did not have the information required to properly perform their oversight duties, even though such information was known to various members of management. In almost all the cases, the directors claimed they were misinformed or “duped” by the CEO or CFO.1 In this respect, these disasters were partly the result of corporate governance failure and, in particular, a failure to establish a robust whistleblower system as an internal control. Those 1 Frederick Lipman, Whistleblowers: Incentives, Disincentives and Protection Strategies, (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2012), pp. 82-83. failures also offer evidence that the independent directors of companies that suffer shareholder debacles tend to lose their business reputation and their other directorships.2 The audit committee members and other independent directors of these companies relied heavily on the fact that the company was receiving clean audit...
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...Enron, Hurricane Katrina Examples of Leadership Gone Wrong Poor crisis leadership was on display after Hurricane Katrina and during the financial crisis The New Orleans masses who huddled in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, the Enron retirees who lost their life savings, and the laid-off workers buried under the economic ruin of financial companies all live with a simple truth. Just as spectacularly as great leadership can spark success, failed leadership can bring down cities, businesses, and economies. The collapse of major financial companies starting with Bear Stearns, the stunningly botched reaction to Katrina, the inept federal response to tips about Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and the financial sleight of hand that brought down Enron are only the latest examples of leadership failure. "We keep making the same stupid mistakes, generation after generation," says William Baker, who holds a doctorate in industrial psychology and is the journalist in residence at Fordham University. Many of the most stunning leadership disasters have common ingredients, such as executives who lack integrity and build organizational cultures where dissent isn't heard. "Leadership is not position. It's moral authority. Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect," says Stephen Covey, author of several bestselling books on leadership and self-improvement, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective...
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...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 to carry a far greater risk for the lender due to the aforementioned credit risk characteristics of the typical subprime borrower. Lenders use a variety of methods to offset these risks. In the case of many subprime loans, this risk is offset with a higher interest rate or various credit...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 24, Number 1—Winter 2010—Pages 93–118 Did Fair-Value Accounting Contribute to the Financial Crisis? Christian Laux and Christian Leuz I n its pure form, fair-value accounting involves reporting assets and liabilities on the balance sheet at fair value and recognizing changes in fair value as gains and losses in the income statement. When market prices are used to determine fair value, fair-value accounting is also called mark-to-market accounting. Some critics argue that fair-value accounting exacerbated the severity of the 2008 financial crisis. The main allegations are that fair-value accounting contributes to excessive leverage in boom periods and leads to excessive write-downs in busts. The write-downs due to falling market prices deplete bank capital and set off a downward spiral, as banks are forced to sell assets at “fire sale” prices, which in turn can lead to contagion as prices from asset fire sales of one bank become relevant for other banks. These arguments are often taken at face value, but evidence on problems created by fair-value accounting is rarely provided. We discuss these arguments and examine descriptive and empirical evidence that sheds light on the role of fair-value accounting for U.S. banks in the crisis. While large losses can clearly cause problems for banks and other financial institutions, the relevant question for our article is whether reporting these losses under fair-value accounting...
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