Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dividends And Bank Capital In The Global Financial Crisis Of 2007–2009, Viral V. Acharya, Irvind Gujral, Nirupama Kulkarni, Hyun Song Shin

Journal of Financial Crises

The headline numbers appear to show that even as banks and financial intermediaries suffered large credit losses in the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009, they raised substantial amounts of new capital, both from private investors and from government-funded capital injections. However, on closer inspection, the composition of bank capital shifted radically from one based on common equity to that based on debt-like hybrid claims such as preferred equity and subordinated debt. The erosion of common equity was exacerbated by large-scale payments of dividends, in spite of widely anticipated credit losses. Dividend payments represent a transfer from creditors (and potentially taxpayers) …

The Effect Of A Financial Crisis On Household Finances: A Case Study Of Iceland’S Financial Crisis, Axel Hall, Andri S. Scheving, Gylfi Zoega

Journal of Financial Crises

Iceland experienced a financial crisis in 2008–2009 when its banking system collapsed, the currency lost half its value, most businesses became technically insolvent, house prices fell, and household debt increased due to indexation to foreign currencies or the price level. This paper tells the story of the crisis and maps the losses to households using a dataset from tax returns that includes all taxpayers in the country and contains the value of housing, mortgage debt, disposable income, and net worth. For relative losses in net worth, the results show that families with children, especially those with parents aged between 24 …

Italy (2008) Capital Injections, Manuel León Hoyos

Journal of Financial Crises

In response to the 2007–09 Global Financial Crisis, in October 2008, the Italian government announced urgent measures to guarantee financial stability and the flow of credit. The Italian government targeted three areas of support: (1) bank recapitalizations, (2) liquidity access, and (3) expansion of guarantees on bank deposits. This case study exclusively examines the Italian bank recapitalization scheme introduced in December 2008 in line with European Union State Aid rules.

The four Italian banks recapitalized in 2009 under the scheme were Banco Popolare (€1.45 billion), Banca Popolare di Milano (€500 million), Credito Valtellinese (€200 million), and Banca Montepaschi di Siena …

Greece (2008) – Capital Injections, Manuel León Hoyos

Journal of Financial Crises

In October 2008, in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis (2007–09), the Greek government announced a €28 billion ($36 billion) government package. Greek Law 3723/2008, “Enhancement of Liquidity in the Economy in Response to the Impact of the International Financial Crisis,” was passed and approved under European Union State Aid rules. The Greek law provided for three voluntary programs: recapitalizations (€5 billion), guarantees (€15 billion), and securities (€8 billion). This case study exclusively examines the recapitalization program. In this program, the Greek government acquired convertible preferred shares in banks in order to build and maintain banks’ Tier 1 capital …

The Portuguese Guarantee Scheme (Portugal Gfc), Julia A. Arnous

Journal of Financial Crises

By October 2008, Portuguese banks’ access to liquidity was severely restricted due to strains in international wholesale markets. On October 12-13, 2008, the Portuguese government notified the European Commission of a guarantee scheme intended to promote solvent credit institutions’ access to liquidity as part of the European policy response to the acute financial crisis aiming to achieve and maintain financial stability. Under the scheme, the Portuguese government guaranteed financing agreements and banks’ issuance of non-subordinated short- and medium-term debt. To obtain a guarantee under the Scheme, banks paid a fee based on the maturity of the debt and a risk …

The Polish Guarantee Scheme (Poland Gfc), Manuel Leon Hoyos

Journal of Financial Crises

Faced with the global financial crisis of 2007–2009, Poland implemented a scheme of State support for financial institutions. In view of a potential global credit crunch, it aimed at improving short- and medium-term liquidity of domestic financial institutions. The scheme came into force on March 13, 2009, and was approved by the European Commission under European Union State Aid rules on September 25, 2009. The scheme enabled the Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the State Treasury, to provide support in the form of Treasury guarantees on newly issued bank debt and the exchange of Treasury bonds for less liquid …

Term Securities Lending Facility (Tslf) (U.S. Gfc), Manuel Leon Hoyos

Journal of Financial Crises

The 2007–09 financial crisis reached a critical stage in March 2008. Amid falling house prices and downgrades of mortgage-related securities, financial markets became severely disrupted. The Federal Reserve—the US central bank—became increasingly concerned about the inability of the 20 primary dealers, including the five largest US investment banks, to fund themselves in short-term funding markets, such as the repurchase agreement market, then estimated at $10 trillion. In response, the Fed created several emergency lending facilities to restore market liquidity that required the Fed to invoke Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act. The Term Securities Lending Facility authorized the Federal …