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Working Paper
Money Market Fund Vulnerabilities: A Global Perspective
Money market funds (MMFs) are popular around the world, with over $9 trillion in assets under management globally. From their origins in the 1970s, MMFs have operated in a niche between the capital markets and the banking system, as investment funds that offer private money‐like assets with features similar to those of bank deposits. Hence, they are vulnerable to runs that arise from liquidity transformation and from sudden changes in investor perceptions of the funds’ ability to serve as money‐like assets. Since 2000, MMF runs have occurred in many countries and under many regulatory ...
Journal Article
Recent trends in the profitability of credit card banks
Competition among credit card issuers has increased sharply over the past few years. Despite this trend, the profitability of credit card banks not only remains high relative to the rest of the banking industry but continues to grow. This article examines recent trends in credit card bank profitability and, by looking beyond the aggregate data, uncovers some important differences between credit card banks owned by bank holding companies and those owned by nonbank firms.
Working Paper
Banking and commerce: a liquidity approach
This paper looks at the advantages and disadvantages of mixing banking and commerce, using the "liquidity" approach to financial intermediation. Adding a commercial firm makes it easier for a bank to dispose of assets seized in a loan default. This "internal market" increases the liquidity of such assets and improves the bank's ability to perform financial intermediation. More generally, owning a commercial firm may act either as a substitute or a complement to commercial lending. In some cases, a bank will voluntarily refrain from making loans, choosing to become a nonbank bank in an ...
Conference Paper
Reaching out to the unbanked
Working Paper
The importance of check-cashing businesses to the unbanked: racial/ethnic differences
The roughly 9.5 percent of all U.S. families that are without some type of transaction account (unbanked) are disproportionately represented by minorities. The unbanked often must rely on alternative ways to carry out basic financial transactions such as cashing payroll checks and paying bills. This study analyzes unique survey data and finds that a consumer's decision to patronize check-cashing businesses is jointly made with the decision to be unbanked. For the unbanked, these businesses are an important source for financial services. Attributes that contribute to these decisions, however, ...
Conference Paper
Changing financial markets and community development: an overview