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We examine the security and firm characteristics of a sample of 2,027 non-convertible investment grade floating rate securities (bonds) issued by the US based firms between 1980 and 2018. These bonds pay a coupon based on short term reference rate, such as fed funds rate, plus a fixed quoted margin. Considerable number (81.6%) of these issues are between 1992 and 2007 signifying floating rate as an effective mechanism to mitigate firm’s interest rate risk when the rates are high and expected to fall. A positive and significant abnormal return (CAR = 0.27%), in the event window surrounding issue date, provides strong evidence that the floating rate is viewed as a less restrictive provision as compared to the call option. Majority of the issues (89.3%) are non-callable since the floating rate mitigates interest rate risk for the issuing firm. Lack of put provision in these bonds (in only 7.35% of the sample issues) signifies no significant investor concerns of falling bond prices. Regression analysis reveals that firms with growth options and with higher leverage experience positive CAR due to the financial flexibility these bonds provide. Firms with higher level of information asymmetry benefits less from issuing these securities since most of these bonds (90.13%) are issued at par therefore, the price is not likely to carry information content that mitigates information asymmetry between the firms and the investors.

This paper describes how behavioral biases influence the resolution of financial covenant violations. Prior literature documents that violation waivers are common; however, there is a lack of discussion on the determinants that lead loan officers to waive covenant violations. We rely on the escalation of commitment bias (or the sunk cost phenomenon) to discuss how loan officers may become attached to a selected course of action and fail to incorporate new information, increasing the likelihood of covenant waivers. We explain the implications of this bias on bank financial reports by detailing how accounting links loan quality to bank financial statements. We further draw on the psychology literature to offer potential solutions to mitigate overcommitment in the context of loan officers. Future research can examine the extent to which loan officers knowingly or unknowingly steer away from rational decision-making. This study has practical implications as users of bank financial reports, including investors, auditors, examiners, and bank managers, learn about processes and challenges on how accounting mechanics link bank loan portfolios to financial statements.

The purpose of this paper is two folds: (i) obtain the overall technical efficiencies (TE), pure technical efficiencies (PTE), and scale efficiencies of the Islamic bank of the nine South and Southeast Asian (SSEA) countries during 2011-2016. (ii) compare them among the Islamic banks of the SSEA. The paper applied the Bootstrap Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) for obtaining three efficiencies in the production of loan and earning assets and found that the average TE, PTE, and SE of the Islamic banks in the region were 77.3 percent, 81.2 percent, and 95.3 percent respectively. The comparison of PTE efficiencies across the Islamic banks found: (i) the average TE of the Islamic banks of Malaysia was 81.9 percent and was higher than the average of other countries in the region; (ii) the average managerial efficiency (PTE) of the Islamic banks of Malaysia, excluding Brunei, Singapore, and Thailand, was 87.0 percent and was higher than the average of other countries in the region; (iii) among countries of the South and Southeast Asia, excluding Singapore and Maldives, the Islamic banks of Pakistan were more scale efficient than other countries in the region. The average scale efficiency of Pakistan’s Islamic banks was 96.8 percent. The underlying reason for the Islamic banks of Malaysia and Pakistan most efficient in the region is because they were the forerunners. They were the first countries to introduce Islamic banks. Secondly, the banks of counties survived through competition with conventional banks operating side by side in the Islamic banks. The policy prescription suggests that bank regulators allow the opening of more Islamic banks to compete with conventional banks for improving PTE efficiency.