Offshore Fund Research Articles

Credit Risk Management and the Financial Performance of Deposit Money Banks: Some New Evidence

This study examined credit risk management and return on equity of Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs) twelve (12) years (2010–2021) post-adoption of the common accounting year-end as mandated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2009. Our data set comprises independent variables of capital adequacy ratio (CAR), liquidity ratio (LQR), loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR), risk asset ratio (RAR), non-performing loans ratio (NPLR), loan loss provision ratio (LLP), and size (SZ). Our dependent variable is the return on equity (ROE). Using a panel data regression analysis, we found that CAR, RAR, NPLR, and SZ are the significant determinants of ROE. We also found that Nigerian DMBs now significantly rely on offshore borrowings in Eurobonds to create risk assets to overcome CBN’s constriction on using local depositors’ funds to create risk assets. Furthermore, we found that shareholders of DMBs with international banking licenses in Nigeria within the study period were not significantly more compensated for their risk exposure than investors in risk-free assets (treasury bills). Therefore, the CBN should continue strengthening its regulatory functions with regular reviews that would compel improvements of the DMBs’ credit risk management systems to mitigate the likely failure of the credit life cycle of granted loans. Additionally, a review of its current regulatory cash reserve ratio of 37.5% is imperative to reduce DMBs’ dependence on offshore funding and its associated foreign exchange risk.

Reimagining Section 94.1: The Offshore Investment Fund Property Rule

In this article, the author contemplates how section 94.1 of the Income Tax Act (Canada), the offshore investment fund property (OIFP) rule, might be reimagined considering its inefficacy in the face of unique non-resident investment funds. By tracing the anti-avoidance origins of the rule, the author shows that the source of this inadequacy is an expectation overload rather than legislative failure. While the OIFP rule was introduced as a stop-gap designed only to tackle a certain kind of basic intermediation strategy, it is now tasked with the much grander objective of creating a level playing field with respect to the tax treatment of domestic and offshore investment funds. The author shows how this mismatch of aspiration and reality has created the opportunity for savvy investors to manipulate the "motive" test within the rule, and avoid its application, simply by proving themselves to have a sufficiently credible and pervasive alternative reason for investing in an offshore fund (for example, the unique expertise of its manager). The author postulates that this flaw is likely to become more frequently tested as funds specializing in novel asset classes (such as cryptocurrency funds) proliferate and grow. The article closes with the proposition that if the test at the centre of the rule is recast as a purely objective analysis, and certain other changes are made, section 94.1 can be transformed to apply a transaction-cost model that will deter undesirable intermediation attempts and ensure that Canada's revenue authorities get a cut of any profits from superreturn investment opportunities. The author draws on key elements of the ultimately abandoned foreign investment entity rules and certain anti-avoidance provisions from elsewhere in the Act to provide a conceptual foundation for the proposed amendments. He also seeks to demonstrate how revising the OIFP rule in this way will achieve a greater degree of capital export neutrality—a policy thread that runs through the Canadian approach to international taxation—by creating a more (though not wholly) level tax playing field, but without the crippling administrative burden and incomplete tax coverage that may accompany a more capital export neutrality-driven approach.

The Promotion of Vietnam Foreign Direct Investment

Vietnam is getting deeper and wider in its intergation with international economy, especially after becoming official member of World Trade Organization. This affiliation has benefited Vietnamese enterprises in being treated fairly on worldwide playground. Recently, they have realized there are a lot of oppotunities foreign direct investment. They also cooperate in adjusting Vietnamese State’s conception of offshore funding. This article concentrates in analyzing the fact of foreign direct investment of Vietnamese businesses, points out its achievements, disadvantages and reasons for limits, thus, makes an offer for the promomtion of Vietnamese enterprises to invest abroad directly in the context of world economic integration.

Inefficiencies of Basis Swaps to Hedge Foreign Exchange Risk

We find that a cross currency basis swap between the U.S. and emerging economies should not be interpreted as a currency hedge, as the exchange rate risk associated with these transactions is quite high. These risks are significantly lower for a basis swap between the U.S. Libor and Euro Libor. Overall, the use of a cross-currency basis swap requires an assessment of the expected trajectories of exchange rates and the associated risks. Offshore funding is thus an imperfect substitute for onshore funding of operations in a local currency.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПРОЦЕСУ ІНТЕРНАЦІОНАЛІЗАЦІЇ ЮАНЯ НА РИНКАХ БОРГОВИХ ФІНАНСОВИХ ІНСТРУМЕНТІВ

The article addresses the crucial aspects of rising need for actual onshore funding in RMB through panda bonds or other potential options, such as direct loans from local banks or fully funded swaps in RMB. Also, the alternative of well-known dim-sum Actual problems of international relations. Release 139. 2019 108 market of Hong Kong should be carefully considered. The features of onshore and offshore funding for multinational companies are examined. Many international corporates, financials and multilateral institutions already have Asian currencies embedded in their issuance programs. A lot of them have significant economic ties to China. The outstanding volume of China’s bond market has surpassed RMB 70,4 trillion (approximately USD 10,6 trillion) in the August 2017, making in the third largest in the world. Significant changes in the structure of such issues are the subject of analysis carried out. Theoretically substantiated the role and place of RMB in the development of China’s bond market. With the inclusion of RMB into the SDR basket and ongoing market-based reform of the RMB exchange rate regime, China’s bond market will continue to attract interest from foreign issuers. The conclusion of the author : internationalization of yuan reflects the efforts to make the domestic bond market more accessible and attractive to foreign issuers and investors, meanwhile boosted by continuous progress on the pilot program of panda bonds, an expanding pool of practical knowledge, and more sophisticated systems and rules, the panda bond market is expected to achieve more progress in the competition with Hong Kong for offshore RMB funding through traditional dim-sum market.

Australian Bank Mortgage Price-Setting Behaviour Pre- and Post-GFC: Does International Funding Cost Matter?

This study is motivated by an ongoing controversy over banks’ interest rate setting conduct in the Australian mortgage market. We examine heterogeneity in the response of variable interest rates on owner-occupied housing loans to the ‘cost of funds’ rates, including the cash rate and the cost of overseas borrowing. The stability of the pass-through mechanism in the post-crisis period is further evaluated in comparison with the pre-crisis epoch. Our results highlight that Australian banks set their mortgage interest rates on funding costs. We also confirm a declining transmission of the cash rate after the GFC consistent with previous studies. Importantly, the close alignment of mortgage rates and international funding cost exists before and after the crisis. Banks partially transmit changes in the cost of offshore funding to their home-loan rates in both short and long term. Short-term pass-through coefficients of the offshore funding cost are heterogeneous, while the long-term traverses are fairly homogeneous. The fuller sizes of these long-term coefficients in the post-crisis subsample signify that Australian banks’ mortgage price-setting practices have been relatively stable after the crisis.

Can investors benefit from the performance of alternative UCITS funds?

We study the performance persistence of alternative UCITS funds, which are a hybrid between mutual funds and hedge funds. Persistence is gauged by alternative measures of performance and risk. Based on contingency tables, we find that performance persists for up to 2 years following ranking. However, persistence is stronger in the short run, and ranked portfolio tests indicate that investors can benefit from persistence for only up to 1 year. The evidence for persistence in risk is ambiguous. We link fund characteristics to performance persistence and find that offshore hedge fund experience enhances persistence. Our results are robust against survivorship bias and other potential database biases.

Does Manager Offshore Experience Countin the Alternative UCITS Universe?

This article examines the performance of alternative UCITS funds on the basis of manager offshore experience and, additionally, the existence of an “equivalent” offshore hedge fund. Managers with offshore experience are defined as management companies managing offshore hedge funds in addition to managing UCITS. For a sample period from 2008 to 2011, the authors find that such UCITS have a positive alpha, still with a P-value of 0.12 due to the limited size of the subsamples, which could provide some evidence of offshore manager added value. Among these UCITS, they identify further those that have an equivalent offshore hedge fund whose performance is replicated by using the same or a similar strategy, or through a swap. The authors find that “offshore-experienced” UCITS without offshore equivalents 1) exhibit no meaningful differences in mean performance compared to those with equivalents, but are 2) generally less volatile and show a positive significant alpha at the 95% level. Concentrating then on those with equivalent offshore hedge funds, the onshore-offshore comparison shows no significant differences in mean performance and volatility when they use equally-weighted indexes but an offshore outperformance when they do a cross-sectional study. The authors also find a sizable regulation-induced tracking error.

Capital Flows and Hedge Fund Regulation

This article introduces a cross‐country law and finance analysis of the regulatory impact on the level of capital flows and the sensitivity of capital flows in response to prior performance (i.e., the “flow‐performance” relationship) in the hedge fund industry. The data indicate that distribution channels in the form of wrappers (securities that combine different products) mitigate flow‐performance sensitivity. Distribution channels via investment managers and fund distribution companies enhance flow‐performance sensitivity. Funds registered in countries that have larger minimum capitalization requirements have higher levels of capital flows. Funds registered in countries that restrict the location of key service providers have lower levels of capital flows. Further, offshore fund flows and calendar effects evidenced in the data are consistent with tax factors influencing capital flows. The findings are robust to selection effects for offshore registrants, among other robustness checks.

New Zealand Bank Vulnerabilities in International Perspective

The global financial crisis is creating stress on banking systems across the world through funding and asset quality shocks. This paper combines different stress scenarios, as well as cross-country analysis, to assess New Zealand bank vulnerabilities to the global crisis and the domestic recession. It finds that a sharp worsening of asset quality would be required to reduce bank capital below the regulatory minimum. On the funding side, a disruption to banks' offshore funding may put pressure on the exchange rate, but would not trigger a systemic liquidity problem.

Capital Flows and Hedge Fund Regulation

This paper introduces a cross-country law and finance analysis of the regulatory impact on the level of capital flows and the sensitivity of capital flows in response to prior performance (that is, the ‘flow-performance’ relationship) in the hedge fund industry. The data indicate that distribution channels in the form of wrappers (securities that combine different products) mitigate flow-performance sensitivity. Distribution channels via investment managers and fund distribution companies enhance flow-performance sensitivity. Funds registered in countries which have larger minimum capitalization requirements have higher levels of capital flows. Funds registered in countries which restrict the location of key service providers have lower levels of capital flows. Further, offshore fund flows and calendar effects evidenced in the data are consistent with tax factors influencing capital flows. The findings are robust to selection effects for offshore registrants, among other robustness checks.

Hedge Fund Indices for Retail Investors: UCITS Eligible or Not Eligible?

Hedge fund indices have grown in numbers over the recent years and made their presence widespread through a number of providers. Assets linked to hedge fund indices currently exceed $12 billion, and the debate is now focusing on whether they should be considered as eligible assets for UCITS III funds. The consequences of a positive or negative answer from regulators are extremely important. In particular, a positive answer would imply that any non-approved offshore hedge fund can be indirectly distributed to any retail investors via an UCITS III vehicle, as long as this fund belongs to a hedge fund index. The problem is that existing hedge fund indices are fundamentally different from indices of traditional assets. In this paper, we review non-investable hedge fund indices, the various steps of their construction and the numerous performance biases that affect their returns. These biases are so important that in our view, the majority of existing hedge fund indices are not representative of the hedge fund universe - at best, they represent a biased sample of funds that have agreed to report to a database or an index provider. The case of the so-called investable hedge fund indices, which are often presented as an alternative to actively managed funds of hedge funds, is not much better. Our observations reveal that existing investable indices are less representative of the hedge fund universe and more biased than their non-investable cousins. They are, in essence, funds of hedge funds managed according to arbitrary rules and primarily designed to support high-fee tracking products. As a result of their numerous biases, lack of representativity and/or construction, our view is that existing hedge fund indices do not fulfill the three basic criteria required to become UCITS III eligible - sufficient diversification, ability to serve as an adequate benchmark and appropriate publication. We therefore suggest excluding them from the list of UCITS III eligible assets. Of course, in the future, this position could be revised once quality hedge fund indices are available and fulfil the aforementioned three basic criteria.

McHouse prices, capital hoovering, and real exchange rate exposures

House prices are both cause and effect of the real exchange rate. In the form of implied rentals or service prices, they are a good proxy for non tradables prices, which in turn are signs of generalised expenditure inflation and hence underlying real exchange rate pressures. The causal impact is because rising house prices suck in offshore funding, markedly so in recent times, creating a capital account driven nominal exchange rate. The hoovering effect is responsive to interest rate differentials, leading to a more focused view of the role of uncovered interest parity, as an offshore response to internally generated demand for funds rather than externally generated hot money chasing spot rate margins. The overall result is likely to be chronic macroeconomic instability over the inter run, creating challenges for corporate risk management, monetary control and industrial policy.

Meeting Basic Health Information Needs in Africa

Based on a paper presented at a meeting held on 15 July 1994 at BMA House, London: Getting health information from the developed to the developing world. Discusses problems faced by the University of Zimbabwe Medical Library (UZML) in meeting health information needs of academics and students. These include: lack of books, journals and experienced staff. Factors enabling information delivery include: development aid; low cost publishing; and information technology. Describes information delivery at UZML and its collaboration with the Ministry of Health in improving the delivery of health information in Zimbabwe through book distribution; publishing a digest of journal literature; training of health library managers ; development of a local health literature database; and online searches of MEDLINE and other databases on CD-ROM. Proposes an offshore endowment fund to finance book provision and discusses problems of security for library books. Reviews the relationship between journal subscriptions, document delivery services and CD-ROM databases, and considers the need for medical librarians to be trained in computer skills and subject knowledge. Concludes that cost and appropriateness must be the yardsticks in any discussion on bringing health information to the developing world.