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The paper's aim is to research and discuss the issue of the lack of transparency in financial reporting and how companies take advantage of accounting rules in ways that inhibit transparency.

A literature review was carried out to see what had been written and discussed. Various legal cases were studied as well as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) studies of the impact of off‐balance‐sheet arrangements allowed by the FASB and SEC.

There are many ways that companies accomplish off‐balance‐sheet financing by taking advantage of rules‐based accounting. If there is not a rule to prevent an entity from handling a particular transaction a certain way, then it is difficult for the auditor to stop it from happening.

The paper is of descriptive nature. There are many policy implications from the results of the paper for all regulatory agencies. The economic substance of transactions needs to be communicated.

Financial managers and financial consultants need to refocus the structuring of financial transactions so that they comply with generally accepted accounting principles and that the economic substance of financial transactions is communicated. More accountability and ethical awareness needs to be instilled in the individuals who deceitfully structure financial transactions. Regulatory bodies need to ensure more transparency by closing loopholes and better enforcement of accounting standards. Boards of directors, especially the audit committees, need to be sure that a company is communicating the true economic reality of the financial transactions and financial position of the business entity. Off‐balance‐sheet financing is one of the most significant ways, among others, that the user of financial statements can be misled. It is time for regulatory bodies to eliminate overly rules‐based standards, clearly state the economic objective of each standard, and require firms to disclose the economic motivations for the accounting practices they adopt.

The value of the paper is that it studies the problems of the lack of transparency in financial reporting. It then suggests that if what is currently being done, (i.e. rules‐based accounting), is not working, then a new approach, principles‐based accounting needs to be implemented by the regulatory agencies. This paper provides an overview of the lack of financial statement transparency.

The purpose of this paper is to examine loan commitments and lending patterns of community banks. The authors also test for shifts in these relationships in the period unwinding the subprime crisis.

Standard panel fixed-effect models as well as hierarchical (mixed) regression models are estimated given that banks operating in a specific geographic market may vary systematically with differences in firm-level characteristics. Hierarchical (mixed) regression models can control for within-counties and within-banks similarities. The authors also employ pooled estimations with clustered standard errors at the bank level as robustness check.

The empirical results show that the use of loan commitments is generally associated with moderate increase in profitability and higher insolvency risk. However, during the recent financial crisis, the use of loan commitments becomes safer. The use of loan commitments is more risky for community banks that concentrate more on loans that focus on real estate, while it is safer for community banks with higher equity. In regards to the performance of community banks’ balance sheet loan activities, a more concentrated loan portfolio results in lower return and higher insolvency risks. High loan growth generates higher return and higher risks.

Prior to the 2008 credit meltdown, community banks significantly increased their issuance of off-balance sheet loan commitments. While the ratio of loan commitments to total loans has come down in recent years it continues to exceed the levels reached in the 1990s. This evolution has, however resulted in little research regarding its implications on community bank profitability and risk.

With the macroprudential approach, systemic risk is explained by a general equilibrium (GE) model. However, since on-balance-sheet and off-balance-sheet (OBS) risks are structurally segmented, for example annually or periodically on financial statements, the GE model might need further integration with OBS risks including ecological shocks.

This study develops a theoretical two-period model with consumption, investment and loans, which further includes carbon emissions to distinguish between loans for “green” or “brown” firms to enhance the perspective of ecological sustainability.

The paper shows how the environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors might be of relevance in the standard bank capital regulatory structure. In dealing with ecological sustainability, a new methodological framework with the green K-index introduces penalties to be paid in the capital structure related to ESG factors. The model is enhanced for screening green or brown firms related to impact investing. The integrated view of financial stability and ecological sustainability further illuminates how a wide cross-sectoral resilience of a green K-index measure for the economy might be achievable.

A stock-flow consistent model with balance-sheet methods raises the question whether all necessary variables and parameters can be computed in practice. Compared to the agent-based model (ABM), this model additionally lacks inputs from agents' behaviour, thus non-rational decisions, which may be relevant in practice. More generally, by adopting a balance-sheet structure, the model shows a coherent framework with relevant variables. The methodology of the GE model with OBS has not been scholarly explored and thus is presented for discussion rather than generalisation. The GE model with OBS provides a new interpretation of systemic risk and interbank relations with a consideration of ecological aspects. Its economic implication contributes to contemporary banking theory as well as to the sustainability discussions in the larger financial sector.

Banks and investors can more carefully measure the ecological risks in their loan portfolios and make better informed decisions leading to a better sustainability of the financial markets.

This study develops a theoretical GE model with off-balance-sheet risks. The model adds green regulation enhancing the capital regulation framework relevant to sustainability. This, in turn, enhances the role of banks in a coherent economic framework for loan decisions towards a much greener finance.

Recent public policy initiatives seek greater transparency in financial reporting through an honest, balanced and thorough management discussion of company performance in the annual report. Management’s discussion invariably includes key performance indicators, such as financial ratios, relevant to external stakeholders. We model the impact of accounting estimates, assumptions, choices and errors on the risk of misleading financial ratios. This framework is illustrated through good and bad examples of financial reporting practices and by simulation of financial data of public companies. We provide a structured approach to inform policymakers, auditors and other stakeholders of the incremental financial reporting risk that accompanies current regulatory efforts.

Which of the banking stream is relatively more profitable in Middle Eastern and North Africa (MENA) region?

The empirical study covers a sample of 15 conventional and 15 Islamic banks for the period 2002-2009.The authors estimate models using the generalized method of moments in system, of Blundell and Bond (1998). They exploit an up-to-date econometric technique which takes into consideration the issue of endogeneity of regressors to evaluate the comparative profitability of Islamic and conventional banks in the MENA region.

Empirical analysis results show that the determinants’ significance varies between Islamic and conventional banks. Profitability seems to be quite persistent in the MENA region reflecting a higher degree of government intervention and may signal barriers to competition.

The main interest is to develop a comprehensive model that integrates macroeconomic, industry-specific and bank-specific determinants. The paper makes comparison of the performance between two different banking systems in the MENA region. The authors consider a variable crisis to gain additional insights into the impacts of the financial crisis on MENA banking sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate determinants of risk-taking in Islamic banks and conventional banks located in the MENA region.

The empirical study covers a sample of 15 conventional and 15 Islamic banks for the period 2002-2009. The authors estimate models using both generalized least square random effect and generalized method of moments system approaches.

The results of the empirical analysis show that the determinants’ risk-taking significance varies between Islamic and conventional banks.

The main aim is to develop a comprehensive model that integrates macroeconomic determinants, industry-specific determinants, and bank-specific determinants. This paper performs a comparison of the risk-taking between two different banking systems in the MENA region.

The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of policy discussions on the role of governance in limiting excessive risk-taking at times of turmoil.

Corporate governance measures are regressed on measures of risk taking using a sample of US bank holding companies (BHCs) during 2002-2014.

Results show that BHCs with more concentrated shareholders, more managerial ownership, smaller boards, and less outside directors undertake less risky investments with respect to total assets, loans, and off-balance-sheet items. Capital adequacy effect is overpowering pushing for more risky positions. Finally, banks with good governance push for less risky positions, even with larger capital ratios, during the financial crisis period relative to the precrisis boom.

This paper extends research on the association between bank ownership structure and risk taking. It adds to prior research by examining a key feature of banks, namely, their bank-specific capital adequacy. The relevance of this study stems from recent initiatives undertaken by the Basel Committee, the Group of Thirty (G30), and bank regulators to address deficient corporate governance structures that led to bank breakdowns.

One of the innovations of this paper is the use of risk-weighted measures to proxy for risk taking in banks, using risk weights used by bank regulators to adjust for operational risk, credit risk, and market risk.

The sensitivity of Canadian chartered banks to exchange rate risk is analyzed over the period 1988‐1995 through estimating the three‐factor asset pricing model (market, interest rate, and exchange rate). Results indicate that banks’ stock returns are sensitive to exchange rate risk and, mainly, to the US dollar relative to the Canadian dollar exchange rate. The sensitivity is, however, unstable over time. Moreover, there is an asymmetric response to exchange rate risk. Investors react more to a re‐evaluation of their portfolio after losses than to an appreciation after successive gains.

The ability of foreign banks to market their services by establishing a physical presence in US markets to a great extent depends upon US legislative enactments, regulatory actions, and judicial interpretations, all of which have been subject to significant change since the late 1980s. Examines recent changes in the US regulatory structure that will have an impact on the operations and marketing strategy of agencies, branches and subsidiaries of foreign banks in US markets. The major focus is on PL 102‐242 which was signed into law in December 1991, regulatory changes designed to implement G‐10 risk‐based capital adequacy guidelines, and other regulatory efforts to impose prudential bank management policies on the US financial services sector. In general, the thrust of the legislative‐regulatory changes will be to increase the sensitivity of banks to the risk associated with their activities. This, in turn, will require a modified marketing strategy to accommodate changes in profit opportunities and in bank customers.