KGC Krähenbühl Global ConsultingLLC

Founded 1998 · Delray Beach, Florida

Financial stability advice for central banks, and expert analysis for the institutions they supervise.

Krähenbühl Global Consulting helps clients with complex financial analysis. We build stress tests, financial stability reports, and off-site monitoring systems for central banks in developing economies, and we provide analysis and expert testimony on commercial banking, corporate finance, corporate governance, real estate, and small-business finance.

Portrait of Dr. Rebel A. Cole
Rebel A. Cole, Ph.D.Chief Executive Officer. Former economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
80+
technical assistance missions for the IMF, World Bank, and regional centers
35
countries and territories served
15,000+
Google Scholar citations to Dr. Cole's research
Top 0.1%
of more than 2.4 million authors on SSRN

Services

Four areas of practice, one analytical standard.

Every engagement rests on the same tools Dr. Cole used as a Federal Reserve economist: bank-level data, early-warning models, and careful empirical work that holds up to review by regulators, referees, and opposing experts.

Central bank technical assistance

Hands-on work with supervisors and financial stability staff, usually as part of a mission sponsored by a multilateral institution.

  • Credit, liquidity, and market-risk stress tests for the banking system
  • Financial Stability Reports, from first draft to publication
  • Off-site monitoring and early-warning systems for banks
  • Training workshops for supervision and research staff

Expert testimony and litigation support

Quantitative analysis, written reports, and testimony for companies and counsel in financial disputes.

  • Commercial banking and bank failure
  • Corporate finance and corporate governance
  • Commercial real estate lending and valuation
  • Small-business credit and lending practices

Bank risk analysis

Bank-by-bank analysis of regulatory filings to show where risk sits and which institutions carry the most of it.

  • Commercial real estate concentration and loan performance
  • Uninsured deposits and unrealized securities losses
  • Exposure to non-depository financial institutions
  • Models of bank failure and supervisory ratings

Real estate and small-business finance

Research-grade analysis for lenders, investors, and policymakers, built on three decades of published work in both fields.

  • Commercial real estate loan portfolios and modifications
  • Credit availability for small firms and start-ups
  • Effects of bank size and regulation on small-business lending
  • Survey design and analysis, drawing on the Fed's Survey of Small Business Finances

Missions

More than 80 missions to central banks since 1998.

Dr. Cole has served as a special advisor to multilateral institutions, helping central banks and supervisors design stress tests, write financial stability reports, and build off-site monitoring systems for commercial banks and other financial institutions.

Sponsors include International Monetary Fund World Bank Asian Development Bank CARTAC METAC FSVC USAID

Recent missions 2017 to 2020

  1. 2020
    Sierra LeoneIMF

    Virtual missions to prepare a Financial Sector Stability Report; evaluated the Bank of Sierra Leone's stress-testing regime.

  2. Sep 2019
    Freetown, Sierra LeoneWorld Bank

    Diagnostics of the two largest state-owned banks and a new set of system-wide stress tests for a financial sector reform strategy.

  3. Jun 2019
    Harare, ZimbabweWorld Bank

    Updated stress tests measuring how different currency options would affect the Zimbabwe banking sector.

  4. Nov 2018
    Harare, ZimbabweIMF & World Bank

    Developed the original currency-option stress tests for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

  5. Mar–Jul 2018
    Mumbai, IndiaWorld Bank

    Led three missions to design, build, and complete credit and market-risk stress tests for the Reserve Bank of India.

  6. Dec 2017
    Doha, QatarWorld Bank

    Led the team that designed and developed market-risk stress tests for the Qatar Central Bank.

  7. Jul 2017
    Freetown, Sierra LeoneIMF

    Led a mission to build single-factor sensitivity stress tests for the banking system.

Where we have worked 35 countries and territories

Caribbean and Latin America 10

AntiguaBahamasBelizeGrenadaGuyanaJamaicaMontserratSt. KittsSt. LuciaTrinidad & Tobago

Middle East and North Africa 9

JordanLebanonMoroccoPalestineQatarSudanSyriaTurkeyYemen

Asia 7

BhutanChinaIndiaMalaysiaMaldivesMongoliaPhilippines

Sub-Saharan Africa 6

Cape VerdeGhanaKenyaNigeriaSierra LeoneZimbabwe

Europe and Central Asia 3

RussiaUkraineUzbekistan

Work in the Eastern Caribbean includes a series of missions with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank in St. Kitts on dynamic stress testing.

Background

Ten years inside U.S. bank regulation, then two decades of research and teaching.

Dr. Rebel A. Cole founded KGC in 1998. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988.

For the next decade he worked as a staff economist for U.S. bank regulators. At the Federal Home Loan Bank Board he worked on the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. At the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas he worked on the banking crisis that followed. At the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, he oversaw the design, development, and implementation of SEER (the System for Estimating Examination Ratings), the Fed's primary system for off-site monitoring of banks and bank holding companies. He also served as co-principal investigator for the Survey of Small Business Finances.

He later taught at the University of Auckland, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and DePaul University in Chicago, where he was Professor of Finance and Real Estate. Over his career he has taught finance to students in six countries: Australia, Bahrain, China, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States.

He comments regularly in the financial press and has appeared on CNN, Fox Business, the PBS Nightly Business Report, and local stations in South Florida and Chicago.

Regulatory career

  1. 1987–1989
    Federal Home Loan Bank Board
    Financial Economist, Washington, DC
  2. 1989–1991
    Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
    Financial Economist
  3. 1991–1993
    Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
    Supervisory Financial Analyst and Deputy Director, Surveillance Section
  4. 1993–1997
    Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
    Financial Economist, Capital Markets Section, Division of Research and Statistics

Academic appointments

  1. 1999–2001
    University of Auckland
    Professor of Finance
  2. 2001–2003
    University of New South Wales, Sydney
    Professor of Finance
  3. 2003–2016
    DePaul University, Chicago
    Professor of Finance and Real Estate

Research

Published in the journals that set the field.

Dr. Cole's research covers financial institutions, commercial real estate, and entrepreneurial finance. Most of his papers are free to download from SSRN.

Most-cited workGoogle Scholar citations as of December 31, 2024
PaperCites
Agency costs and ownership structure
Ang, Cole & Lin · Journal of Finance, 2000
4,097
The importance of relationships to the availability of credit
Cole · Journal of Banking & Finance, 1998
1,338
Cookie-cutter versus character: The micro structure of small business lending by large and small banks
Cole, Goldberg & White · Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 2004
1,155
Déjà vu all over again: The causes of U.S. commercial bank failures this time around
Cole & White · Journal of Financial Services Research, 2012
622
Expropriation through loan guarantees to related parties: Evidence from China
Berkman, Cole & Fu · Journal of Banking & Finance, 2009
549

Journal of FinanceJournal of Financial EconomicsJournal of Financial and Quantitative AnalysisReview of FinanceJournal of Financial IntermediationJournal of Corporate FinanceJournal of Banking & FinanceJournal of Business EthicsReal Estate EconomicsJournal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

Recent publications

Media

Quoted where banking news is made.

Reporters call Dr. Cole for analysis of Federal Reserve policy, bank failures, commercial real estate exposure, stress tests, and small-business credit.

The Wall Street JournalFinancial TimesThe New York TimesReutersBloombergAmerican BankerABC NewsNewsweekFortuneWashington PostCNNNPRPBS

Many of Dr. Cole's television interviews are collected on his YouTube channel.

Contact

Talk with Dr. Cole about your project.

For central bank technical assistance, expert witness inquiries, or media requests, write or call directly.

Emailrebel.cole@krahenbuhlglobal.com
Phone+1 312 933 0584
Office156 Andrews Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33483