Face à l'ampleur de la crise financière de 2007-2008, comprendre la prise de risques des banques et ses déterminants est devenu une question centrale aussi bien pour les académiques en finance que pour les régulateurs. Dans cette thèse, nous analysons le rôle joué par l'objectif de maximisation de la rentabilité des fonds propres (RoE), omniprésent dans les banques, au regard de la prise de risques. A travers de nombreux tests empiriques, nous mettons en évidence que le RoE est associé à des prises de risques extrêmes et que des incitations monétaires à maximiser cette mesure existaient pour les dirigeants de banques dans les années précédant la crise. Le RoE, utilisé comme principale mesure de performance dans les banques, s'avère en réalité être un indicateur avancé de leur risque et de leur vulnérabilité dans les crises. Afin de mieux comprendre l'attachement des banques au RoE. nous avons également étudié la légitimité de cette mesure en temps normal, c'est-à-dire hors périodes de crise. Les résultats indiquent qu'avant la crise, les risques latents associés au RoE n'étaient que partiellement pris en compte et que la maximisation du RoE n'a pas bénéficié aux actionnaires des banques. A la lumière de ces résultats, la validité du RoE comme mesure de performance apparait d'autant plus surprenante. Enfin, dans une troisième partie, nous questionnons l'approche générale en matière de régulation qui a été de considérer que plus de capital était souhaitable, et ce quelle que soit la nature des investisseurs qui l'apportent. Nous montrons que l'horizon des actionnaires joue un rôle central puisque les banques qui avaient plus d'investisseurs court-terme ont moins résisté (moins bonne performance et plus faible probabilité de survie) pendant la crise. / The 2007-2008 financial crisis prompted much handwringing among academics and regulators as to why banks had taker on so much risks and what factors drove risk-taking. In this thesis, we focus on the responsibility of the focalization on RoE as main performance measure in inducing risk-taking in banks. Our empirical tests show that RoE is associated with strategies of excessive risk-taking and that bank managers had monetary incentives to maximize RoE in the years leading up to the crisis. While RoE is used as a key performance measure in banks, it proves to be a leading indicator of a bank's risk and vulnerability during crises. To better understand the reluctance of banks to abandon RoE despite its perverse effects on risk-taking, we assess in the second article, the validity of RoE as a performance measure outs ide of financial crises. Results indicate that in the pre-crisis period, the information conveyed by RoE on bank risk was only partially taken into account and that RoE did not guarantee a superior performance for bank shareholders in normal periods. Giver these results, the enduring reliance on RoE in banks is even more surprising and questionable. In the third article, we challenge the general view in the area of bank regulation which is that more capital is better, irrespective of who provided it. We show that the investment horizon of bank capital providers plays a crucial role since banks with more short-term investors performed worse and had a lower survival probability during the crisis.

This thesis researches what effect the economic crisis of ’08-’09 had on the returns of M&A deals, and whether the type of diversification in the deal affected this relationship. In order to do this, a sample of 898 M&A deals announced between 2006 and 2011 is constructed. With this data an event study is executed, followed by an OLS regression. Both the event study and the regression find a significant negative effect of the crisis period on the abnormal returns of M&A deals, while no significant moderating effect of both cross-border and industrial diversification is found. The results show that it is important for other research on M&A returns to look at the state of the economic cycle at the point in time the M&A deal was announced, as this could influence the outcomes of these studies. Furthermore, the results should discourage firms to participate in M&A deals during crisis periods, as these will be value destroying compared to the same deals during non-crisis periods.

This thesis addresses the current, ever-developing framework of rules governing trading in the most widespread financial instrument - OTC derivatives. The main objective of the thesis is to analyse the current state of the regulation of trading in OTC derivatives within the EU - namely, the EMIR Regulation. Subsequently, it examines whether the legal framework has been set up properly and effectively, and explores what steps should be taken in the near future in order to improve it. Given that the subject of this thesis is much more of an economic than a legal nature, its first part introduces OTC derivatives as a concept, and the specifics of trading in them. The second part examines the status of OTC derivatives within the financial market over time, starting from their modern-day beginnings in the 1990s, through their role in the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, to the current issues related to them. The main part of the thesis is devoted to the EMIR Regulation, its scope of application, and in particular the three main obligations which EMIR introduces in relation to OTC derivatives. These comprise, firstly, the obligation to perform a central clearing through central counterparties; secondly, the obligation to observe specific risk mitigation techniques for OTC derivative contracts...

The international financial environment has become riskier due to the recent developments in product offerings and failure of regulation to keep abreast with these changes. The Global Financial Crisis exposed inadequacies of regulation, thus consensus on the need for comprehensive and uniform regulation was made by G-20 member states. Imposing exchange trading, clearing, reporting and capital requirements on the derivatives market are some of the ways of dealing with the problems caused by lax regulatory oversight. In this study, through the comparative analysis of derivatives regulation in South Africa, Brazil, India and Turkey, it was established that emerging countries are taking active steps to implement the G-20 agreement. Uniformity in the core rules was noted, with differences in the supportive legislation. Country specific rules which support the macroeconomic factors that are faced by these countries and the infrastructure available for regulatory execution are used amongst countries. The study concluded that current regulation in emerging countries is accommodative and regulatory differences are in line with economic factors in each country.

This thesis used the events of the 2007 financial crisis as a means of being able to add to the research already done on South African unit trusts. The objective was to study the risk-adjusted performance of South African general equity unit trusts against the market during the period between 2005 and 2014. This period took into account the bull market preceding the financial crisis, the market crash of 2007 and the subsequent market recovery that followed. Data was obtained online through the I-Net BFA data base and included 161 general equity unit trusts that contained a full data set. In addition to the general equity unit trusts, the Satrix40 was studied to compare a passive unit trust against those that are actively managed. The 10 year Government bond was also used as a risk-free rate to add to the comparisons of performance results. The Sharpe, Treynor and Jensen measures were applied to the data with the results adding more support to the opinions that markets are fairly efficient and active investment strategies are being challenged by consistently well performing passive investments. Throughout the duration of the study, taking into account the varying economic cycles, the Satrix40 passive investment showed the best average overall return on simple return calculations as well as during the risk-adjusted measurements. In support of active investment management, unit trusts showed their best relative performance figures during the period of the financial crisis. This suggested that active financial managers were able to make the active calls necessary to weather the storm of the financial crisis. While the study did have its limitations, the results it produced are intended to offer investors further knowledge in enabling them to make more educated investment decisions in the future.

The explosion of the global financial crisis in 2007-08 reignited the urgency to reflect on the origins and causes of financial collapses. As the above events kick-started an economic meltdown that is still ongoing, comparisons with the Great Crash of 1929 started to abound. In particular, the externalities that a broad spectrum of societal groups had to bear as a consequence of various banking failures highlighted the necessity of a more inclusive and balanced regulation of firms whose activities impact on a wide range of stakeholders.The thesis is centred on the proposal of a paradigm, the “enlightened sovereign control”, that provides a theoretical, institutional and substantive framework as a response to the legal issues analysed in the thesis. These stem primarily from the analysis of two sequences of events (the 2001-03 wave of “accounting frauds” and the 2007-08 global crisis) which represent the background upon which modern financial scandals are explained. This is done by highlighting a number of common denominators emerging from the case studies (Enron and Parmalat, Northern Rock and Lehman Brothers) which caused financial instability and scandals. The research is grounded on the initial recognition of theoretical themes in the field of corporate and financial law, which eventually link with the more practical events examined. This parallel enquiry leads to the investigation of two heavily interrelated spheres of law and finally highlights more practical legal issues that emerge from the analysis.Through this multifaceted approach, the thesis contends that the occurrence of financial crises during the last decade is essentially rooted in two main problems: a corporate governance one, represented by the lack of effective control systems within large public firms; and a corporate finance one identified with the excesses of financial innovation and related abuses of capital market finance. Research conducted in this thesis ultimately seeks to contribute to current debates in the areas of corporate and financial law, through the proposals of the “enlightened sovereign control” paradigm.

Subject of the diploma thesis is a broad analysis of financial cycles that are often behind other financial topics and their clear and precise understanding is still not sufficient, despite their high significance, and indeed a critical issue for financial stability. The paper will discuss indicators of financial cycles, we can ask ourselves how each financial cycles, meaning equity, credit and real estate prices, are synchronized with each other, but also toward the economic cycle, and what consequences this synchronization brings looking at different scenarios. The turning point in the boom phase is often triggered by the financial crisis, so we look if it is possible to predict these breaks in time. We discuss the recommended adaptations of policies to the financial cycle and in the final phase of diploma work will focus on the analysis of financial cycle in the Czech Republic.

Le premier chapitre de cette thèse étudie l’efficience d’accumulation des RI et de la stérilisation dans les pays dollarisés et endettés, en mesurant le coefficient de stérilisation, et le coefficient de retournement. Ce chapitre explore le lien existant entre les sources des réserves et les dettes externes. En appliquant le modèle de régression 2SLS, nous identifions les variables explicatives qui nous permettent d’estimer les coefficients cités. Les résultats obtenus indiquent que malgré l’application théorique et correcte de la politique de stérilisation, les contraintes économiques contribuent à réduire l’efficience attendue des politiques monétaires. Le deuxième chapitre consiste à envisager les probabilités des pays endettés de tomber en crises financières malgré le fait qu’ils accumulent les réserves internationales agissant en tant que choc modérateur et/ou auto-assurance. Nous utilisons l’Indicateur de Stress Financier ISF, proposé par Balakrishnan et al (2009) et le FMI qui couvre les divers aspects de crises financières. Nous appliquons le modèle Markov Switching à probabilité variée. Nous obtenons comme résultat que les dettes augmentent la probabilité qu’un pays souffre d’une crise financière, par contre, les RI ne procurent pas forcément les « paix » dans l’économie, à l’exception des quelques cas. Cependant, les effets négatif des dettes emportent sur les effets positifs des RI surtout dans les pays relativement plus dollarisés. Le troisième chapitre mesure tout d’abord le degré des indices du trilemme: Stabilité du taux de change, indépendance monétaire et ouverture du compte capital, tout en tenant compte de l’accumulation des ratios RI par rapport au PIB ou Dettes Externes ou Dettes Externes (DE) à court terme. L’évolution des indices du trilemme montre que les pays qui adoptent « de facto » un taux de change flexible, profitent des avantages des RI pour adopter un régime de taux de change administré, qui consiste à atteindre simultanément les trois objectifs du trilemme sans renoncer à un d’eux. Les interprétations peuvent changer si les RI sont prises en fonctions des dettes, autrement dit, l’utilisation des RI/Dettes devrait être envisagée dans de telles études. Ensuite, nous trouvons qu’en ce qui concerne les pays qui adoptent de facto un régime de taux de change fixe, les RI (différents ratios) ne jouent aucun rôle quant à l’évolution du triangle de Mundell et n’interviennent pas dans les décisions politiques monétaires des autorités monétaires. Enfin, ce chapitre traite l’aspect normatif du trilemme, reliant les choix politiques aux résultats macroéconomiques tels que la volatilité de la croissance de production. Nous remarquons que les résultats sont différents selon les pays, et dépendent des différents ratios de mesure du RI. Nous concluons que l’impact des RI sur la volatilité de la croissance de production peut changer selon le niveau des DE et selon le régime de taux de change adopté. / The first chapter of this thesis investigates the efficiency of Hoarding IR and Sterilization in dollarized and indebted countries by measuring the sterilization coefficient, and the offset coefficient. It also focuses on exploring the link between the sources of Reserves and the external debt. We applied a 2SLS regression models and we identified explanatory variables that enabled us to estimate the aforementioned coefficients. Our results show that despite their theoretical correct practice of sterilization policy, economic constrains contribute to weaken the efficiency expected from monetary policies. The second chapter consists of estimating the probability whether an indebted country is vulnerable to crises despite its accumulation of IR -acting as a buffer stock and self-insurance. We use the Financial Stress Indicator (FSI) proposed by Balakrishnan et al (2009) and IMF which covers several aspects of financial crisis- and apply the Markov switching model with time varying, We found that debt had increased the likelihood for a country to suffer from financial crisis, however IR did not necessarily provide “Peace” in the indebted countries except of some exceptions. Thus, consistent with, Calvo (2003, 2006), who found that a country that has an excessive external debt, hoarding reserves will not be sufficient to avoid a crisis, but may be useful during the "sudden stop" crises, we conclude that the deleterious effects of ED might outweigh in most cases the beneficial effects of IR especially in more dollarized countries The third chapter measures first, the degree of trilemma indexes: exchange rate stability, monetary independence and capital account openness while taking into account the increase of hording IR ratio over GDP, over External Debt and over Short Term External Debt. The evolution of the trilemma indexes shows that countries applying de facto flexible Exchange Rate Regime (ERR) take advantage of the IR and become able to adopt a managed ERR that consist of achieving the three trilemma indexes simultaneously without renouncing to anyone of them. We found that different IR ratio could have different interpretations and different directions of monetary policies, where external debt should be taken into consideration in such study while using the IR. As for the country that is applying a de facto fixed exchange rate regime, the IR (different ratio) do not play any role in changing the patter of the Mundell trilemma and do not intervene in monetary authority policies. This chapter treats as well the normative aspects of the trilemma, relating the policy choices to macroeconomic outcomes such as the volatility of output growth. We found different results from country to another, while taking different ratios of measuring IR, concluding that the impact of IR on the output volatility could change due to the level of external debt and adopted exchange rate regime.

Final thesis is concerned on explanation of mortgage market concept in the Czech Republic, in the United States of America and Japan. First part is focused on characterization of mortgage market in general. The second part sets reasons for selection of states and describes theirs brief demographic, geographic, historic and cultural characteristics. Second part is divided into a three smaller sections, which represents analyze of mortgage market in each country. Although the attention is paid on the mortgage market crisis which was born in The United States, we can not forget the interconnection of a world finance sector and be aware of a speed of expansion and potential risk for other world economies.

The diploma thesis describes the implementation of the monetary policy by FED and its goals. Afterwards the aim of the thesis is focus on the plain definition of a crisis followed by describtion of the causes and the course of the recent crisis and the monetary policy reactions of FED regarding the recent crisis. Finally, the thesis plots the assumed impacts of the crisis with a probable prediction of the following course of the crisis in the financial sector and the real economy.