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Full-Text Articles in Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation

United Kingdom: Hbos And Rbs Emergency Liquidity Program, 2008, Bailey Decker, Jack French Apr 2025

United Kingdom: Hbos And Rbs Emergency Liquidity Program, 2008, Bailey Decker, Jack French

Journal of Financial Crises

Two United Kingdom–based banks, Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), faced substantial liquidity needs during fall of 2008. To provide funding until recapitalization, the Bank of England (BoE) extended ad hoc emergency liquidity facilities to HBOS on October 1 and to RBS on October 7, 2008, comprising US dollars (USD) and British pounds sterling (GBP). As collateral for the 2008 assistance, HBOS and RBS posted pools of loans that were ineligible for the BoE’s market-wide operations. Aggregate usage of the two ad hoc facilities peaked at GBP 61.5 billion (USD 106.0 billion) on October …


Switzerland: Ubs Capital Injection, 2008, Anmol Makhija Oct 2024

Switzerland: Ubs Capital Injection, 2008, Anmol Makhija

Journal of Financial Crises

UBS, the eighth-largest bank in the world and the largest bank in Switzerland in 2008, incurred write-downs totaling USD 50 billion during the Global Financial Crisis, mostly on exposures to securities linked to US subprime mortgages. On October 16, 2008, the Swiss Federal Council announced that the government would subscribe to CHF 6 billion (USD 5.3 billion) of mandatory convertible notes (MCNs) issued by UBS to restore confidence in the bank and the financial system. UBS agreed to use the government’s capital to fund the equity for a special purpose vehicle, StabFund, that the central bank created to take over …


Spain: Caja De Ahorros Castilla–La Mancha Capital Injection, 2009, Lakshimi Swaminathan, Vincient Arnold Oct 2024

Spain: Caja De Ahorros Castilla–La Mancha Capital Injection, 2009, Lakshimi Swaminathan, Vincient Arnold

Journal of Financial Crises

Caja de Ahorros Castilla–La Mancha (CCM) was a small Spanish savings bank with just 1% market share in deposits and loans. Following years of rapid credit expansion in the real estate sector and reliance on wholesale funding markets to carry out its operations between 2000 and 2008, CCM found itself on the brink of insolvency in early 2009, with a Tier 1 capital ratio of just 1.3%, compared with the 8% regulators required. The authorities placed the bank under administration in 2009. Consequently, the Spanish Savings Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund (Fondo de Garantía de Depósitos de Ahorros, or FGD) agreed …


Portugal: Banco Espírito Santo Capital Injection, 2014, Salil Gupta, Shavonda Brandon Oct 2024

Portugal: Banco Espírito Santo Capital Injection, 2014, Salil Gupta, Shavonda Brandon

Journal of Financial Crises

Banco Espírito Santo (BES) was the second-largest private bank in Portugal in 2014, with assets of EUR 80 billion (USD 81 billion). A capital increase of EUR 1.1 billion to the BES was concluded on market terms in June 2014. The Bank of Portugal (BOP) adopted a resolution measure for BES on August 3, 2014, to safeguard financial stability by protecting all depositors and ensuring continuation of operating activities of the bank. The Portuguese Resolution Fund provided equity capital of EUR 4.9 billion to a bridge bank, Novo Banco, with 100% public ownership and the expectation of sale to private …


Latvia: Parex Bank Capital Injection, 2008, Bailey Decker Oct 2024

Latvia: Parex Bank Capital Injection, 2008, Bailey Decker

Journal of Financial Crises

Heading into the Global Financial Crisis, JSC Parex banka was Latvia’s second-largest bank in terms of assets, comprising 13.8% of total assets in the Latvian banking sector. In autumn 2008, Parex faced a capital shortfall owing to massive credit and market losses in addition to increasing liquidity problems and deposit runs of 240 million Latvian lats (LVL; USD 428.6 million). Parex’s capital adequacy ratio fell below the regulatory minimum of 8% on October 28, 2008. Parex had two senior syndicated loans maturing in February and June 2009, totaling EUR 775 million (USD 992 million). Latvian authorities doubted that Parex would …


Netherlands: Sns Reaal Capital Injection, 2013, Ayodeji George Oct 2024

Netherlands: Sns Reaal Capital Injection, 2013, Ayodeji George

Journal of Financial Crises

The property finance division of SNS Reaal N.V., a financial conglomerate comprising SNS Bank, the fourth-largest Dutch bank, and Reaal Insurance, the second-largest Dutch life insurer, was heavily exposed to losses in the real estate sector from 2008 to 2010. In January 2013, a growing bank run and the revelation of substantial losses forced the government to intervene. The Minister of Finance rejected proposals from the bank and a private equity firm, and nationalized SNS Reaal on February 1, 2013. Upon nationalizing the firm, the Dutch state injected EUR 2.2 billion into the firm in the form of ordinary shares, …


Korea: Korea First Bank And Seoul Bank Capital Injections, 1997, Jisoo Park, Owen Heaphy Oct 2024

Korea: Korea First Bank And Seoul Bank Capital Injections, 1997, Jisoo Park, Owen Heaphy

Journal of Financial Crises

Korea First Bank (KFB) and Seoul Bank (SB) were two of the five largest commercial banks in Korea with high levels of exposure to conglomerates, which had high short-term foreign debt in the late 1990s. Starting in the late summer of 1997, Korea, like other Asian economies, experienced capital outflows due to international creditors’ reducing their exposures to Korean financial institutions. Banks relied on the Bank of Korea for foreign exchange liquidity support. The two banks became insolvent owing to high levels of nonperforming loans and required government recapitalization after experiencing a run in early December 1997. As financial conditions …


Japan: Nippon Credit Bank Capital Injection,1997, Owen Heaphy Oct 2024

Japan: Nippon Credit Bank Capital Injection,1997, Owen Heaphy

Journal of Financial Crises

In 1997, Japan experienced a financial crisis caused by the bursting of a bubble in commercial real estate prices. By March, Nippon Credit Bank (NCB), the smallest of Japan’s three long-term credit banks, required government assistance due to its heavy exposure to commercial real estate and large amount of nonperforming loans. On April 1, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced the government’s intention to recapitalize NCB as part of a restructuring package. To facilitate the injection, Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) engineered a consortium of large existing shareholders in NCB (mainly insurance companies) and the other two Japanese long-term credit …


Iceland: Arion Bank, Islandsbanki, And Landsbankinn Capital Injections, 2008, Ayodeji George Oct 2024

Iceland: Arion Bank, Islandsbanki, And Landsbankinn Capital Injections, 2008, Ayodeji George

Journal of Financial Crises

Iceland’s three largest banks—Glitnir, Kaupthing, and Landsbanki—grew rapidly in the 2000s and failed amid depositor runs when they lost access to foreign funding markets at the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). On October 6, 2008, the Icelandic Parliament passed the Emergency Act, and authorities quickly used their new powers to nationalize the three banks. The Ministry of Finance created and capitalized Arion Bank (for Kaupthing), Islandsbanki (for Glitnir), and Landsbankinn (for Landsbanki), to hold the old banks’ performing domestic assets and all insured domestic deposits, and the prime minister assured all domestic depositors that they would be protected. …


India: Yes Bank Capital Injection, 2020, Salil Gupta Oct 2024

India: Yes Bank Capital Injection, 2020, Salil Gupta

Journal of Financial Crises

In March 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) helped engineer a capital injection and restructuring of Yes Bank, India’s fourth-largest private sector bank, to prevent a run on the bank and to preserve broader financial stability. On March 14, 2020, Yes Bank received a total capital injection of 100 billion Indian rupees (INR; USD 1.34 billion) in total from the State Bank of India and a group of private sector banks (HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Federal Bank, Bandhan Bank, IDFC First Bank). The government-owned SBI received a 48.2% equity stake, committing to contribute up to …


Greece: Piraeus Bank Capital Injection, 2015, Stella Schaefer-Brown Oct 2024

Greece: Piraeus Bank Capital Injection, 2015, Stella Schaefer-Brown

Journal of Financial Crises

Greek banks experienced heavy deposit outflows from December 2014 through June 2015, which led Greece to declare a bank holiday from June 28, 2015, until July 18, 2015. Greek banks’ reliance on liquidity assistance from the Eurosystem began in August 2011, with a second peak in 2015; emergency liquidity assistance was fully repaid in 2019. The European Central Bank’s Single Supervisory Mechanism, responsible for banking supervision in Europe, conducted a stress test and asset quality review of the four large Greek banks and identified a capital shortfall of EUR 4.7 billion for Piraeus Bank (the Bank) in October 2015. To …


Greece: Ate Bank Capital Injection, 2011, Stella Schaefer-Brown Oct 2024

Greece: Ate Bank Capital Injection, 2011, Stella Schaefer-Brown

Journal of Financial Crises

In 2009, ATE Bank, the fifth-largest Greek bank, received a capital injection of EUR 675 million in Tier 1 preference shares as part of a broader aid package for the bank. In August 2010, Greek authorities conducted a strategic review of Greek banks, which concluded that ATE Bank was still facing serious difficulties. In October 2010, ATE Bank submitted a restructuring plan that included the purchase of EUR 1.14 billion in new ordinary shares. Of this EUR 1.14 billion, the bank used EUR 675 million to repurchase the earlier EUR 675 million preference shares. Private investors purchased an additional EUR …


Germany: Hsh Nordbank Capital Injection, 2009, Anmol Makhija Oct 2024

Germany: Hsh Nordbank Capital Injection, 2009, Anmol Makhija

Journal of Financial Crises

State-controlled HSH Nordbank AG (HSH) lost EUR 2.8 billion in 2008, mainly because of impairments to its holdings of US structured credit securities. On April 29, 2009, the German bank regulator informed HSH that it would close HSH if the owners did not recapitalize the bank to the 8% total capital ratio requirement. In June 2009, the state governments of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein injected EUR 3 billion (USD 3.8 billion) of capital in ordinary shares with voting rights and provided a EUR 10 billion asset guarantee, called a “risk shield,” for a 7.85% annual fee. Over the next few years, …


Cyprus: Laiki Bank Capital Injection, 2012, Stella Schaefer-Brown Oct 2024

Cyprus: Laiki Bank Capital Injection, 2012, Stella Schaefer-Brown

Journal of Financial Crises

In 2011, Cyprus’s second-largest bank, Marfin Popular Bank—later renamed Cyprus Popular Bank, but commonly known as Laiki Bank—lost billions of euros when the Greek government restructured its sovereign debt, decimating its equity capital and shutting its access to market liquidity. In late 2011, supervisors estimated the bank’s capital shortfall at EUR 3.1 billion. In January 2012, the bank submitted a plan to the central bank that included EUR 1.8 billion of capital raised from private investors and EUR 1 billion of capital increases through debt-to-equity swaps and deleveraging. However, Laiki Bank was unable to raise private capital and asked the …


France: Bank Of France Capital Injection, 1805, Ayodeji George Oct 2024

France: Bank Of France Capital Injection, 1805, Ayodeji George

Journal of Financial Crises

After receiving the exclusive right to issue bank notes in Paris in 1803, the Bank of France became a significant source of funding for the French government in early 1805, as Napoleon prepared for a key battle of the Napoleonic Wars. In the first half of 1805, the French treasury paid back loans with notes with later maturities rather than metallic money, draining the metallic liquidity reserves of the Bank of France far below levels that bankers at the time considered prudent. After the circulation of an unfounded rumor that Napoleon himself had raided the metallic reserves for the war …


Belgium: Fortis Group Capital Injection, 2008, Ayodeji George Oct 2024

Belgium: Fortis Group Capital Injection, 2008, Ayodeji George

Journal of Financial Crises

In September 2008, in the wake of the freezing of credit markets caused by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Fortis Group, a financial conglomerate incorporated in Belgium and the Netherlands, faced depositor runs and share price deterioration. These negative consequences were a result of its exposures to US subprime mortgage-related assets and other losses from its 2007 acquisition of ABN AMRO, a large Dutch bank. Over the weekend of September 27–29, authorities from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the European Central Bank (ECB) held emergency talks, resulting in the announcement of EUR 11.2 billion (USD 14.3 billion) in capital injections …


Belgium And France: Dexia Group Capital Injection, 2008, Ayodeji George Oct 2024

Belgium And France: Dexia Group Capital Injection, 2008, Ayodeji George

Journal of Financial Crises

Dexia Group (Dexia, or the Group) was a banking and insurance conglomerate that specialized in public financing with major operations in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in mid-September 2008, Dexia faced a liquidity crunch as wholesale funding markets froze. Faced with insolvency concerns, authorities from the bank’s three primary markets, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, conducted overnight negotiations to agree on capital injection terms. On September 30, 2008, authorities and the bank’s board of directors announced a EUR 6.4 billion (eventually EUR 6 billion) capital injection intended to restore Dexia’s solvency and maintain systemwide stability. The …


Austria And Germany: Hypo Alpe Adria Capital Injections, 2008, Bailey Decker Oct 2024

Austria And Germany: Hypo Alpe Adria Capital Injections, 2008, Bailey Decker

Journal of Financial Crises

Hypo Alpe Adria (HAA) was Austria’s sixth-largest bank at the time of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009 (GFC), with EUR 41.2 billion (USD 29.2 billion) in total assets as of June 30, 2008. HAA pursued a growth strategy in Southeastern Europe in the years preceding the GFC, which proved troublesome for HAA’s loan portfolio and led to large write-downs in autumn 2008. HAA’s majority shareholder was a German landesbank, Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB). On October 26, 2008, the Austrian Parliament passed a EUR 100 billion support scheme in response to the GFC, with EUR 15 billion allocated for troubled banks. …


Survey Of Ad Hoc Capital Injections, June Rhee, Benjamin Hoffner, Greg Feldberg, Andrew Metrick Oct 2024

Survey Of Ad Hoc Capital Injections, June Rhee, Benjamin Hoffner, Greg Feldberg, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

Government recapitalizations of systemic banking organizations can be costly and unpopular but are sometimes necessary to protect depositors and prevent financial contagion. This paper surveys 23 Yale Program on Financial Stability case studies of ad hoc capital injection programs, defined as programs that provide capital to a single institution or a clearly defined minority of institutions. We saw a marked increase in capital injection programs in the past 50 years, more than half of which were ad hoc. Authorities designing ad hoc capital injections face difficult decisions—when to deploy them rather than let a bank fail; whether to impose losses …


Us Community Development Capital Initiative (Cdci), Adam Kulam Nov 2021

Us Community Development Capital Initiative (Cdci), Adam Kulam

Journal of Financial Crises

The United States Department of the Treasury responded to the Global Financial Crisis with an economy-wide stimulus package called the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). Within the portion of TARP’s budget dedicated to bank investments, about $570.1 million was disbursed to community development financial institutions (CDFIs)—specifically, banks and credit unions (depositories)—in a program called the Community Development Capital Initiative (CDCI). Through the CDCI, Treasury provided capital to CDFI depositories, encouraged them to lend to small businesses, and promoted other community-oriented goals. The CDFI depositories issued either preferred shares or unsecured subordinated debentures to Treasury at low (2%) interest rates for …


Uk Bank Recapitalisation Scheme, Alec Buchholtz Nov 2021

Uk Bank Recapitalisation Scheme, Alec Buchholtz

Journal of Financial Crises

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing global credit crunch in late 2008, Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) announced a large economic package to provide support to the UK banking sector. As part of the package, the eight largest banks committed themselves to raising their total Tier 1 capital by £25 billion through either private fundraising or government assistance. Thus, the economic package featured a new Bank Recapitalisation Scheme to invest up to £50 billion in capital into UK banking and credit institutions that could not raise their assets in the private sector. Government capital was invested into either …


Thailand Capital Support Facilities 1998, Adam Kulam Nov 2021

Thailand Capital Support Facilities 1998, Adam Kulam

Journal of Financial Crises

After the floatation of the baht on July 2, 1997, the Thai economy endured a financial crisis from massive currency devaluation, exchange rate losses, and non-performing loans (NPLs). In response, the Thai government employed two types of restructuring programs: (1) the alleviation of NPLs and distressed assets, (2) the correction of financial institution insolvency and capital inadequacy. To help recapitalize private institutions with public funds, the government introduced tier-1 and tier-2 capital support facilities. The tier-1 facility aimed to attract private capital, and the tier-2 facility aimed to stimulate lending and corporate debt restructuring. Capital injections took the form of …


Russian Bank Capital Support Program, Sean Fulmer Nov 2021

Russian Bank Capital Support Program, Sean Fulmer

Journal of Financial Crises

At the start of 2014, the Russian Federation had experienced several years of decelerating growth rates as a result of weak investment, poor governance, and failed structural reforms. During 2014, the dual shocks of rapidly declining oil prices and increasingly stringent international sanctions led to significant financial instability, as Russian firms lost access to international markets and net capital outflows accelerated. As part of the response to this crisis, the Russian government unveiled a RUB 1 trillion (US $17.2 billion) bank capital support program, which it later revised down to RUB 838 billion. The program, operated by the Deposit Insurance …


Polish Fundusz Pomocy Instytucjom Kredytowym, Junko Oguri Nov 2021

Polish Fundusz Pomocy Instytucjom Kredytowym, Junko Oguri

Journal of Financial Crises

Between September and December 1925, the Second Polish Republic faced a so-called twin-crisis: the złoty, the Polish currency, collapsed, and the financial system faced bank runs and flights of deposits. On November 28, 1925, the Polish Government established Polish Fundusz Pomocy Instytucjom Kredytowym (FPIK), injecting over PLN 60 million capital through Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), a national development bank. The government-led capital injection scheme kept supporting the unstable Polish financial system during the inter-war period. Furthermore, in the 1930s, the FPIK served not only the large banks but also smaller financial institutions, and sometimes, non-financial companies. While the FPIK successfully …


Korea: Bank Recapitalization Fund, Lily S. Engbith Nov 2021

Korea: Bank Recapitalization Fund, Lily S. Engbith

Journal of Financial Crises

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, a number of foreign governments enacted stabilization measures to protect their domestic economies in the wake of the global credit crunch. The Bank Recapitalization Fund (the Fund), announced by the South Korean government on December 18, 2008, and implemented on February 15, 2009, was one such intervention intended to assist Korean commercial banks in strengthening their capital bases and thus restore normal lending practices between banks and nonfinancial institutions. Invoking its authority under Article 65, Section 3 (“Emergency Credit to Financial Institutions”), of Chapter IV of the Bank of Korea …


Japan’S Act On Strengthening Financial Functions (Asff), Vaasavi Unnava, Junko Oguri Nov 2021

Japan’S Act On Strengthening Financial Functions (Asff), Vaasavi Unnava, Junko Oguri

Journal of Financial Crises

After the Japanese Financial Crisis in 1990s, the non-performing loan problem was mitigated in the large Japanese banks but persisted in the regional banking system. By 2004, regional banks accounted for half of all non-performing loans. In 2004, the government passed the Act on Strengthening Financial Functions (ASFF), legislation for capital injections to address the non-performing loan problem. Aimed at regional banks, the ASFF secured ¥2 trillion in capital, with various eligibility restrictions and requirements, such as a rigorous debt restructuring plan. As the Japanese economy and the financial system encountered multiple external shocks, the government amended the Act several …


Financial Functions Stabilization Act, Vaasavi Unnava Nov 2021

Financial Functions Stabilization Act, Vaasavi Unnava

Journal of Financial Crises

In 1990, the asset-pricing bubble in Japan peaked and began a steady decline. Over the next seven years, a series of bank failures induced the Japanese government to introduce the first of a series of capital injections in 1998, 1999, and 2004. The capital injection of 1998, authorized by the Financial Functions Stabilization Act, made ¥13 trillion ($103 billion) available to financial institutions that applied. By the end of the injection window, 21 banks and trusts applied for and received ¥1.8 trillion ($13.5 billion) in subordinated debt and loans and preferred shares. While there were no limits on compensation for …


Prompt Recapitalization Act, Vaasavi Unnava Nov 2021

Prompt Recapitalization Act, Vaasavi Unnava

Journal of Financial Crises

In 1997, Japan’s banks were in crisis due to hundreds of billions of dollars of non-performing real estate loans. In response, the government performed three rounds of capital injections in 1998, 1999, and the early 2000s. The capital injection of 1999, authorized by the Prompt Recapitalization Act, made as much as ¥25 trillion ($208 billion) available to financial institutions that applied, regardless of their capitalization. By the end of the injection window, 32 banks and trusts applied for and received ¥8.6 trillion ($71.6 billion) total in preferred shares and subordinated debts. The Act required banks to submit and adhere to …


Ireland 2009 Recapitalization Program For Financial Institutions, Steven Kelly Nov 2021

Ireland 2009 Recapitalization Program For Financial Institutions, Steven Kelly

Journal of Financial Crises

At the November 2008 height of the Global Financial Crisis, Ireland’s Department of Finance announced a willingness to inject capital into the six largest banks. This announcement followed the issuance of a blanket guarantee of those banks’ liabilities in September 2008. After broadly designing the potential investments in 2008, the Irish government came to agreements with Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks in February 2009 to inject €3.5 billion ($4.5 billion) in each bank in exchange for preferred equity stakes. The government funded the investments from the funds of the National Pensions Reserve Fund, something it would secure the …


Indonesia Joint Recapitalization Of 1999, Vaasavi Unnava, Ariel Smith Nov 2021

Indonesia Joint Recapitalization Of 1999, Vaasavi Unnava, Ariel Smith

Journal of Financial Crises

The Indonesian government implemented a joint recapitalization program in 1999 to aid some of its private banks struggling with the effects of the Asian Economic Crisis. Nine banks were eligible, and seven ultimately participated. The program was voluntary; in order to participate, bank managers had to pass a test proving that they were competent enough to run their bank and create a three-year plan for the bank’s operations subject to independent assessment. All of the bank participants were able to return to the 4% minimum capital adequacy ratio by the end of the program.