Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

The Never Ending Attraction Of The Ponzi Scheme, Pearl Jacobs, Linda Schain

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In the 1920’s, Charles Ponzi engaged in a notorious money making scheme. This scheme had been tried before but no one prior to Charles Ponzi had managed to swindle millions of dollars out of unsuspecting people. Thus, the scheme bears his name. In December 2008, Bernard Madoff, a major Ponzi schemer, was exposed. He managed to con investors out of over $65 billion over a thirty year period. Madoff was a highly respected financial expert. The investors were mostly well educated and supposedly financially savvy. How did this happen? This paper will examine some theories which may help explain both …

Corporate Financial Policies And Informed Trading, Abu S. Amin

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper analyzes the information content of corporate financial policies, in particular dividend changes and share repurchases, by examining their announcements effects on the behavior of informed traders. If unexpected dividend changes or share repurchases have information content, then there should be announcements effects on the extent of informed trading. I test this hypothesis by estimating the extent of informed trading before and after the dividends, tender offers and Dutch auctions announcements. I estimate the informed trading when the dividends announcements are informative [i.e. announcements contain surprises] and compares it when dividends announcements are not informative [i.e. announcements contain no …

Information-Based Trading And The Bid-Ask Spread, Kee H. Chung, Jing Jiang

WCBT Faculty Publications

We analyze the equilibrium spread when the transaction size of informed traders is elastic in the value of private information (α). We show that the pooling equilibrium is likely to be inefficient when trade size is sensitive to α and the inefficient equilibrium can occur before the market breaks down. The pooling equilibrium spread does not monotonically increase with α, although it increases with the elasticity of informed trades to α. The upper bound of the elasticity of informed trades for the market to remain open for the active specialist is higher than the corresponding value for the passive specialist …

A New Regulatory Framework Of Financial Institutions In The Aftermath Of The Global Financial Crisis, Ingrid Zantis

WCBT Undergraduate Publications

Three years since the outbreak of the global financial and economic crisis and two years since the global markets’ turmoil following the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy and the US government’s bail-out of AIG, reforming the regulatory structure for financial institutions and platforms has achieved some visible progress. Though the new architecture is far from being finished, the main challenge is to implement what has been agreed upon in commitments and framework legislation, without losing track of the target to soundly improve global financial stability and effectively resolve future global crises on its way.

Against this background, this paper examines the emerging …

Interpreting Financial Results, Bridget Lyons, Rupendra Paliwal, Danny A. Pannese

WCBT Faculty Publications

The article discusses three accounting changes issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FSAB). The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 158 "Employers' Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Retirement Plans" and the SFAS No. 160 "Noncontrolling Interests in Consolidated Financial Statements" are mentioned. Financial Interpretation 48 "Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes, an Interpretation of FSAB Statement No. 109" is mentioned.

The takeaway? Financial analysts, investors, and creditors need to carefully interpret ratios and measures, including debt to equity, liabilities to equity, and return on equity. Financial ratios used in loan covenants should be clearly designed and …

A Common Eurozone Bond, Erik Welin

WCBT Undergraduate Publications

Introduction

The sovereign bond yields of the Eurozone, or more correctly the euro area, have since the introduction of the Euro undergone a bond yield compression. However, as can be seen in table 1, these bond yields started to diverge considerably around mid 2008 following the recent financial crisis and increased sovereign risk. Yields on Greek, Irish, and Portuguese bond have diverged the most from for example German bonds. Based upon this and the ongoing economic integration within the EU and Eurozone, proposals for a common Eurozone bond have been raised. There are many pros and cons with such a …

Effectively Hedging The Interest Rate Risk Of Wide Floating Rate Coupon Spreads, Thomas Schröder, Kwamie Dunbar

WCBT Working Papers

Bond issuers frequently immunize/hedge their interest rate exposure by means of interest rate swaps (IRS). The receiving leg matches all bond cash-flows, while the pay leg requires floating rate coupon payments of form LIBOR + a spread. The goal of hedging against interest rate risk is only achieved in full if the present value of this spread is zero. Using market data we show that under a traditional IRS hedging strategy an investor could still experience significant cash flow losses given a 1% shift in the underlying benchmark yield curve.

We consider the instantaneous interest-rate risk of a bond portfolio …

Should Individual Investors Use Technical Trading Rules To Attempt To Beat The Market?, Thomas S. Coe, Kittipong Laosethakul

WCBT Faculty Publications

Problem statement: Despite widespread academic acceptance of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, some stock traders still use technical trading rules in an attempt to beat the market. Approach: This study looked at four trading rules, namely, the arithmetic moving average, the relative strength index, a stochastic oscillator and its moving average. These trading rules compare the relationship of current prices to past price patterns to generate a signal when to buy and sell stocks. The trading rules were tested over the years 2000-2009, a period of time that exhibited bull and bear markets, to determine if traders could actively …

Teaching The Budgeting Process Using A Spreadsheet Template, Benoit Boyer

WCBT Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how to use a template to teach the budgeting process and how to use the same template to do a sensitivity analysis once the budget process is completed. The template can be used as-is by non-accounting majors. They just have to fill in all of their assumptions by replacing the red numbers. The template can be locked so that students cannot modify the formulas by mistake. Simply protect the worksheet (Review tab > Protect Sheet) and students will be able to only change the assumptions. Accounting majors are shown how to build their …

Proliferation Of Tail Risks And Policy Responses In The Eu Financial Markets, Lucjan Orlowski

WCBT Faculty Publications

This study draws attention to the proliferation of tail risks in financial markets prior to and during the course of the recent global financial crisis. It examines the level of tail risks in selected equity, interbank lending and foreign exchange markets in selected EU Member States in relation to the United States. The extent of tail risks is assessed by applying general error distribution (GED) parameterization in GARCH volatility tests of the examined variables. The empirical tests prove that tail risks were pronounced across all of the examined European financial markets throughout the crisis. They were also significant prior to …

Path To Financial Inclusion: The Success Of Self-Help Groups-Bank Linkage Program In India, Sivakumar Venkataramany, Balbir B. Bhasin

WCBT Faculty Publications

Financial inclusion has been a major theme in both industrialized and developing economies in the era of financial globalization. When microcredit institutions have received limited success in many countries, microfinance is being used in India for the purpose of accomplishing universal financial inclusion. This paper recognizes the overwhelming efforts of the Government of India and focuses on the success of the linkage between commercial banks and self-help groups (SHGs). The SHGs comprising predominantly women groups help in the social cause of alleviation of poverty, increase of sustainability, reduction of vulnerability, improvement of capacity building and help the weaker sections build …

Regulation Of The Otc Derivatives Market: A Regulatory Proposal Of Cds, Erik Welin

WCBT Undergraduate Publications

According to many commentators the credit derivatives and especially CDS have been a leading cause to the development of the current financial crisis. During the last year, policy makers, regulators, and other commentators around the world have therefore focused their attention on how to regulate OTC derivatives and especially CDS.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze some of the proposed regulatory responses to OTC derivatives and especially CDS from an economic point of view. The paper proposes a twofold regulatory response. First it proposes that we return to the old common law rule of "rule against difference contracts". …

Stochastic Business Cycle Volatilities, Capital Accumulation And Economic Growth: Lessons From The Global Credit Market Crisis, Kwamie Dunbar

WCBT Faculty Publications

The recent global economic downturn in a number of economies was preceded by rising credit market risk brought on by a massive financial market failure. This paper develops a small open economy model that analyzes the interaction of business cycle volatilities with capital accumulation and the subsequent impacts on economic growth. We use a stochastic dynamic programming model to test the central hypothesis that rising volatility shocks is an inhibitor to capital accumulation and subsequently economic growth. The model illustrates that traditional capital-based growth models which assume a constant capital stock are not consistent with the business cycle variation in …

Finance Flies High: How Unilever Redesigned The Finance Function To Build Brand Value And Drive Growth, Barbara M. Tarasovich, Bridget Lyons

WCBT Faculty Publications

Unilever's finance team played a key role in the success of their brands. The company achieved its fourth consecutive year of accelerating organic sales growth from less than 0.5% in 2004 to more than 7% in 2008, according to Jim Lawrence, Unilever's CFO. Its strategy is to focus on volume growth and strengthening the competitive position of the company's brands. In this article, the authors examine how the finance function at Unilever was redesigned to deliver the firm's strategic goals, including an emphasis on volume growth and competitive position of its brands. Beginning in 2005, the finance team at Unilever …

How The Madoff Fraud Could Affect Your Cpa Practice, Stephen Scarpati

WCBT Faculty Publications

With an estimated $65 billion lost from trust funds, retirement plans, pensions, investment funds, inheritance monies, and nonprofit organizations, many people have been adversely affected by the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff. When you combine a lot of lost money with a lot of angry people, the result is a lot of lawsuits. The breadth of those lawsuits will encompass all associated with the affected organizations--including CPAs. Those messages were loud and clear at the May 27, 2009, breakfast symposium "Are CPAs the Next Madoff Victims? The Accountant's Liability," sponsored by The CPA Journal.

Interest Rate Convergence In The Euro-Candidate Countries: Volatility Dynamics Of Sovereign Bond Yields, Hubert Gabrisch, Lucjan Orlowski

WCBT Working Papers

We advocate a dynamic approach to monetary convergence to a common currency that is based on the analysis of financial system stability. Accordingly, we test empirically volatility dynamics of the ten-year sovereign bond yields of the 2004 EU accession countries in relation to the eurozone yields during the January 2, 2001- January 22, 2009 sample period. Our results show a varied degree of bond yield co-movements, the most pronounced for the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland, and weaker for Hungary and Slovakia. However, since the EU accession, we find some divergence of relative bond yields. We argue that a ‘static’ …

The Dynamics Of Quote Adjustments, Kee H. Chung, Chairat Chuwonganant, Jing Jiang

WCBT Faculty Publications

Liquidity providers on the NYSE make faster quote adjustments towards equilibrium spreads and depths than they do on NASDAQ. Liquidity providers in both markets make faster spread and depth adjustments for stocks with more frequent trading, greater return volatility, higher prices, smaller market capitalizations, and smaller trade sizes. We find that stocks with greater information-based trading and in more competitive trading environments exhibit faster quote adjustments. The speed of quote adjustment is faster after decimalization in both markets. These results are robust and not driven by differences in stock attributes between the two markets or time periods. Overall, our results …

After The Acquisition: Here Are Seven Steps To Successfully Integrating Finance And Accounting Functions After A Merger Or Acquisition, Barbara M. Tarasovich, Bridget Lyons, John Gerlach

WCBT Faculty Publications

Although much has been written regarding the factors critical to successful integration after a merger or acquisition, very little research has focused on the particulars of integrating the finance and accounting functions of the companies involved. As with overall business integration, detailed planning, effective communication, and speed of execution are critical. The authors recommend a seven-step process that will help balance the needs of the business during an acquisition as well as ensure financial controls are established. The overall steps provide the key activities to be accomplished and provide specific and explicit guidance. This seven-step process includes: 1. Begin planning, …

An Assessment Of The Impact Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act On The Investigation Violations Of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Karen Cascini, Alan L. Delfavero

WCBT Faculty Publications

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, a plethora of corporate scandals occurred. Due to these corporate debacles, corporate executives have been placed under fire. In response to such unethical conduct with regard to internal practices and financial reporting, legislation has been passed in order to ensure that corporations conduct their business in an ethical manner. The purpose of this paper is to assess the connection between the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOx), to determine whether SOx has influenced the FCPA’s investigative violation activities by examining the number of such investigations …

Entrepreneurial Financing—Alternatives For Raising Capital, Paul Broude, Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Most entrepreneurs are continually concerned about their finances. Their companies perhaps not yet profitable, they may have a fear of “running out of dry powder.” These entrepreneurs often have fallen in love with their company’s technologies, products, and potential markets, but they require more resources. Invariably these emerging ventures shroud their fear of the grueling capital raising marathon by presenting voluminous business plans to potential investors. They often flaunt their “optimized business models.” Investors, however, typically want to know why the potential investment is such a good deal. The entrepreneur often wants guidance regarding what to say to whom in …

Transparency In Financial Markets And Institutions: A Catholic Social Thought Perspecitve, Bridget Lyons, Lucjan T. Orlowski

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

We argue that transparency, or information disclosure by public and private sector institutions should be viewed as an important component of the Catholic Social Thought process. A higher degree of transparency by a single institution denotes revealing a greater magnitude of truthful information that leads to optimization of actions by other individuals and institutions, thus ultimately, to maximization of social welfare. Based on the precepts of Catholic Social Thought, more detailed and unbiased information allows individuals to make more truthful observations of reality that subsequently rationalize their judgment and actions. This is particularly relevant for financial markets and institutions that …

Corporate Governance, Public Accounting Firm And Multinational Corporation: The Us Sox Act Perspective, Marc Massoud, Eunsup Daniel Shim

WCBT Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to review US corporate governance systems and to highlight the mandated roles of audit committee and external auditor within the SOX Act. In addition, it discusses requirements and implications of the SOX Act for the foreign accounting firms and multinational corporations. Finally this paper provides a perspective on improvement of corporate governance and financial integrity. In order to regain trust from the financial market, the SOX Act mandates (1) to improve auditor’s independence by reducing conflicts of interest; (2) to increase corporate financial reporting responsibility by requiring a CEO or a CFO certify accuracy …

Preparing Your Business For Valuation, Margaret D. Nowicki, Eric E. Lewis, Jeffrey W. Lippitt

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

There is a tremendous need for the valuation of small businesses. Oftentimes, small businessowners do not have the wherewithal to gather the data and keep it up to date for use in situations that require valuation. Formal valuations are necessary because they provide objective evidence of value, in contrast to value set by markets on which public companies are traded. This article focuses on some factors that impact the valuation of the business and will help small businessowners feel more comfortable talking with financial professionals about how the business might be valued.

A System Dynamics Approach To Assessing Public Policy Impact On The Sustainable Growth Rate Of New Ventures, Jeff W. Trailer, Kuau Garsson

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The growth of firms is fundamentally based on self-reinforcing feedback loops, one of the most important of which involves cash flow. When profit margin is positive, sales generate cash, which may then be reinvested to finance the operating cash cycle. We analyze simulations of a sustainable growth model of a generic new venture to assess the importance of taxes, and regulatory costs in determining growth. The results suggest that new ventures are particularly vulnerable to public policy effects, since their working capital resource levels are minimal, and they have few options to raise external funds necessary to fuel their initial …

An Empirical Review Of Us Corporate Default Swap Valuation: The Implications Of Functional Forms, Kwamie Dunbar

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper first develops a reduced form three-factor model for valuing credit default premia that is used to provide implicit prices which are then compared with market prices of credit default swaps to determine if swap rates adequately reflects market risks. This model extends Jarrow (2001) two-factor model by adding three new features to enhance the effectiveness of the model and add to the growing debate on the empirical pricing of credit default swap and the effectiveness of reduce form models. Firstly, the extended model retains Jarrow's mean reverting properties but will be extended to be arbitrage free because of …

Post-Jgtrra Dividend Planning, Danny A. Pannese, Paul N. Iannone

WCBT Faculty Publications

The JGTRRA reduced the tax rate on dividends for individuals and lowered the accumulated earnings and personal holding company taxes for corporations until 2008. This article reviews some of the planning techniques corporations and shareholders can use to take advantage of the temporarily lower rates.

One of the key provisions of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA), if not the prime emphasis of the legislation, is Section 302's reduction in the individual tax rate on corporate dividends received to 15% (5% for individuals in the 15% and 10% brackets). In an emerging trend, the lower …

How Unilever Hpc-Na Sold Its Employees On The Balanced Scorecard, Bridget Lyons, Andra Gumbus

WCBT Faculty Publications

Unilever Home & Personal Care-North America (HPC-NA) not only takes marketing its products very seriously, but it heavily promotes its balanced scorecard to employees as well. No wonder Unilever HPC-NA successfully designed a unique strategy to communicate awareness of the BSC while encouraging its participation and use. Their experiences should prove valuable to other organizations implementing a balanced scorecard and to those just beginning to formulate a communications approach to internal stakeholders about its role, significance, and use. The Unilever HPC-NA marketing campaign provides an effective strategy that other firms may consider when marketing a balanced scorecard internally. The HPC-NA …

The Balanced Scorecard At Futura Industries, Andra Gumbus, Susan D. Johnson

WCBT Faculty Publications

Most companies use the balanced scorecard (BSC) to focus on the financial aspects or the operational metrics required by ISO quality certification. But that is not all one unique company uses the BSC for. At Futura Industries, President Susan Johnson built the enterprise's success over the past 3 years on the BSC's foundational level - the learning, innovation, and growth dimension. This dimension provides the building blocks that generate success in the remaining 3 quadrants: customer service, financial, and internal operations. And the results have followed: a 50% increase in revenue without adding personnel from 1996 to 1999. This organization …

Pitney Bowes Calls For New Metrics, Mark Green, Jeanine Garrity, Andra Gumbus, Bridget Lyons

WCBT Faculty Publications

The importance of measuring strategy and action plans is here to stay. That is why savvy companies are using a scorecard. Pitney Bowes Inc. is one company that believes in the balanced scorecard. At PBI the basis is in place with a newly defined mission statement, individual objectives linked to the mission, and metrics designed to measure progress toward achieving those objectives. The company has been successful on several fronts. In fact, the balanced scorecard approach helped PBI to improve a process in its core business and ultimately saved the company millions.

Measuring The Degree Of International Harmony In Selected Accounting Measurement Practices, Emmanuel N. Emenyonu, Ajay Adhikari

WCBT Faculty Publications

The I-index developed by Van der Tas and chi square tests suggested by Tay and Parker are used to quantify and assess the degree of harmony in selected accounting measurement practices of large companies from France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. The results indicate significant differences in accounting for inventory, fixed assets, and investments among the countries. The 3 sub-topics that exhibited a high degree of harmony were the treatment of gains or losses on the disposal of fixed assets, short-term investments and long-term investments, a reflection of the preference of regulators and companies in the different countries …