Location: Room 1.04, Hen Goleg

Telephone: 01248 38 3571

Email: r.alsakka@bangor.ac.uk

Rasha Alsakka is a Professor of Banking and Finance at Bangor Business School. Rasha was appointed at Bangor in January 2010. Previously she taught at Aberystwyth University. Rasha has a portfolio of high-quality research outputs and has developed an international reputation, with her work appearing in many internationally recognized journals such as Journal of Banking and Finance, European Economic Review, Journal of Financial Stability, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, British Accounting Review, and European Journal of Finance. Rasha is currently an Associate Editor at the European Journal of Finance.

Rasha has been involved in projects funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, Chartered Banker Institute and ESRC. Rasha is also a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI).

Rasha is a member of the management board of the Institute of European Finance (IEF) at Bangor. Within the IEF, Rasha leads the Credit Risk research planning group, which has a reputation for high quality research in the UK, and includes several BBS members of staff, PhD students and external associate members.

 Rasha has also supervised several PhD students to completion and has acted as an external examiner at PhD, PGT and UG levels at many UK Universities. She has a wide teaching experience in the areas of Finance, Investment and Banking and has taught subjects linked with students’ employability and transferable skills, with a strong research-led teaching strategy.

Roles within Bangor Business School and Bangor University (BU): 

• BBS Senior Tutor (Aug 2018 - Present)
• Lead of the Credit Risk research planning group (May 2024-Present)
• Member of BU Learning Analytics Steering Group (Feb 2023- Present)
• Member of BU Student Led Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy Steering Group (Sep 2022 - Present)
• Member of BU Hardship Fund Committee (Sep 2021- Current)
• Deputy Safeguarding Co-ordinator (Oct 2024- Present).
• Member of the Knowledge Group (responisble for driving innovative thinking at Bangor University - Nov 2019 - Nov 2021)
• BBS Disability Tutor (2012 - Nov 2020) and (July 2021 - Aug 2022)
• BBS Ethics Officer (2014 - Oct 2018)
• Member of CAHB (previously CBLESS) Ethics committee (2014 - 2018)
• Personal tutor
• Teaching Advisor and Mentor, PGCertHE
• Supervision of PG & UG dissertations

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching:

• Investment and Portfolio Management  (ASB-3522 & ASB-2522)

Postgraduate Teaching:

• Investment Strategy and Portfolio Management (ASB-ABJ-4125)

• Capital Markets & Treasury Management (ASB-9040)

• Core Competencies for PG Researchers (ASB-4931)

Doctoral workshop

• Credit Ratings
• Research Methods - Limited dependent variables
• Research design and strategy: Ethics and Research

PhD Students Supervisor

• Cem Soner (Oct 2021- Present)
• Hong Ngoc Nguyen (Oct 2021 - Present)
• Chiara Lo Re (Nov 2021 - Present)
• Ahmed Dhaif (April 2021 - Present)
• Phuc Lam Thy Nguyen (Completed in March 2021 - Minor corrections).
• Andrea Martin (Completed in April 2020 - Minor corrections).
• Anh Quang Nguyen (Completed in Jan 2020 - Minor corrections).
• Laurence Jones (Completed in Jan 2019 – No corrections).
• Irfan Sahibzada (Completed in July 2016 - substantive amendments within 6 months).
• Patrycja Karolina Klusak (Completed in May 2016 - Minor corrections).
• Vu Tran (Completed in Jan 2015 - Minor corrections).
• Huong Thi Vu (Completed in Dec 2014 - No corrections).
• Gwion Williams (Completed in March 2013 - Minor corrections).

The British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants June 2023 - May 25: (£9,865) The Impact of  Brexit, Covid-19 Pandemic and Inflation on the UK and EU banking sectors.

Charted Banker Research Funding: Project ‘European Banking Union and its consequences for bank behaviour and bank credit ratings’. £1500- Dec 2017-Jan 2020

ESRC & BBS PhD Studentship in Financial Economics starting in September 2015 for three years. Full awards consist of a stipend of approximately £14,168 per annum and a fee contribution of approximately £4,084. Students will also be eligible to apply for a research allowance (£750 per annum).

ESRC & BBS PhD Studentship in Financial Economics started in September 2012 for three years. Full awards consist of: a stipend of approximately £13,590 per annum and a fee contribution of approximately £3,807.

Research Interest: Credit risk and credit ratings, Political economy, ESG and sustainable finance, Fintech, European sovereign debt crisis, Credit and uncertainty.

My work has been presented in many international conferences, such as:

• Keynote speaker at Bangor College China (BCC) 10^th year anniversary- Banking & Finance Seminar -Sep 2024
• Wolpertinger Annual Conference – 28-31Aug 2024 Palermo Italy.
• The 12^th International Conference of the Financial Engineering and Banking Society (FEBS), Greece, June 2023.
• 6^th Conference on Credit Analysis and Risk Management Basel Workshop on Credit Risk Sep 2019. 
• Wolpertinger Conference, Modena- Italy, August 2018.
• BAFA – Corporate Finance and Asset Pricing Symposium, Manchester, UK, July 2018.
• BAFA- Northern Area Group Conference, Bangor, 2017, 14-15 Sept. 
• INFINITI Conference on International Finance, Dublin – Ireland (2016)
• XXIV InternationalRome Conference on Money, Banking and Finance. Rome - Italy (2015)
• Wolpertinger Conference - Granada, Spain (2015)
• European Financial Management Association - Reading (2013)
• International Conference on the Global Financial Crisis - Southampton (2013)
• Emerging Markets Group Conference- Cass Business School (2011)
• Financial Sector Performance & Risk (Post-Crisis) Conference, Bangor Business School (2011)
• British Accounting and Finance Association Annual Conference, Birmingham (2011), Cardiff (2010), Dundee (2009)
• Wolpertinger conference, Bangor, UK (2010)
• Emerging Markets Conference, Turkey (2010)
• Newcastle Economics seminar, Newcastle University, UK (2010)

Editorial Board member:

• European Journal of Finance (Sep 2024- Present) 

Awards: 

• Bangor University Teaching Fellowship - July 2022
• Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI).
• Outstanding reviewer status for Journal of Banking and Finance in Aug 2017 in recognition of the contributions I made to the quality of the journal.
• Center for the Enhancement of Learning: CELT Associate Award (2016).

External examiner for UG & PGT Programmes:

• University of Liverpool (October 2024- Present)
• De Montfort University (December 2020- Present)
• Bristol University - UK (September 2018 - December 2022)
• Newcastle University - UK (September 2016 – Nov 2021)
• University of Hertfordshire UK & INTI University - Malaysia (Nov 2015 - Nov 2019)
• External module marker and auditor for the London School of Economics and Political Science LSE (2009-2013)

PhD examinations: University of Bath, University of Bristol, University of Hull, Universiti Malaya, Bangor Business School.

Ah-hoc Refereeing

Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Bank of Spain, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of International Money and Finance,European Journal of Finance, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, International Review of Financial Analysis;Emerging market Review, Journal of Financial Stability,  Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, International Journal of Finance and Economics, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal.

Research interests include:

Credit risk and credit ratings, Political economy, ESG and sustainable finance, Fintech, SMEs lending, Credit and uncertainty.

Credit rating agencies and political economy

The US sub-prime crisis followed by the European debt crisis as well as covid 19 pandemic brought mounting criticism of the credit rating agencies (CRAs) for their role amid deteriorating economic conditions. Several regulatory reforms to monitor CRAs have been approved in Europe and the US, yet little is known about their effectiveness in improving the quality of ratings in the corporate rating sector. Rating quality is of utmost importance as ratings are strongly embedded into regulations and affect the welfare of both borrowers and investors. Credit ratings are a major concern for corporate managers; they affect a firm’s access to the bond market, and impact employee and customer relationships as well as business operations. Negative rating actions can trigger events such as bond covenant violations, increases in bond coupons or loan interest rates, and forced bond repurchases.

Many countries in Europe and the USA have experienced degrees of political turmoil following the recent financial crises and covid 19 pandemic. Therefore, the voting preferences in these countries have moved toward more extremist and populist parties, and caused shifts in the ideology and policies of several countries. These have enormous negative influence on the level and cost of public and private debt, credit risk, swings in capital flows, currency valuation and economic growth.

This PhD research project aims to fill a clear void in the literature by investigating various aspects of the link between credit risk and political economy in light of the current developments during the global financial crisis and post-crisis periods. The project aims to investigate the effects of political impairments upon financial markets and real economic activity. It will explore the consequences of increased political and sovereign risk for firms’ ratings, cost of capital, investment, and financing decisions. The project also aims to investigate whether the recent regulatory reforms of the credit rating industry have been successful in improving the quality of corporate credit ratings taking into account the major issue of political uncertainty in many countries.

This project aims to apply empirical and theoretical frameworks to analyse the performance of corporate ratings, focusing on the effects of the recent regulatory reforms and political uncertainty. The project has the potential to deliver findings of relevance to a range of market participants, as well as credit rating agencies, regulators and policy makers.