Purpose The aim of this paper is to study the information content of operational loss events occurring at European financial institutions with respect to the announcing bank’s industry rivals from an equity investor’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct an event study to identify spillover effects of operational loss events using the Carhart (1997) four-factor model as a benchmark model. In addition, they conduct multiple regression analyses to investigate the extent to which firm-specific factors or the market environment affect abnormal returns. Findings They observe significant negative abnormal returns following operational loss announcements exceeding € 50 million for both the announcing firms and their competitors. In addition, they find that stock market reactions occur only within a very small event window around the announcement date, indicating a high degree of market efficiency. Finally, abnormal returns tend to be insignificant for smaller loss amounts. Originality/value While operational risk is often believed to be strictly firm-specific, the results show that large operational risk events are not purely idiosyncratic; rather, they are systemic in the sense that they have contagious effects on non-event banks. Thus, the authors shed new light on how operational risk affects equity investors’ investment behaviour in an opaque and highly interconnected banking market.

Following the three-pillar structure of the Basel II/III framework, the article categorises and surveys 279 academic papers on operational risk in financial institutions, covering the period from 1998 to 2014. In doing so, different lines of both theoretical and empirical directions for research are identified. In addition, this study provides an overview of existing consortia databases and other publicly available sources on operational loss that may be incorporated into empirical research, as well as in risk measurement processes by financial institutions. Finally, this paper highlights the research gaps in operational risk and outlines recommendations for further research.

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of bank-specific, regulatory and macroeconomic determinants on solvency, risk provisioning, and profitability in the Armenian banking sector. We show that abnormal loan growth is associated with a decrease in regulatory capital ratios, an increase in loan loss provisions, and a reduction in loan portfolio profitability. In addition, we observe an inverse relationship between GDP growth and bank solvency as well as profitability. Regarding regulation, we identify a decrease in regulatory capital ratios as well as a drop in profitability after the implementation of the Basel II Accord. JEL Classification: G32, G21, G28

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