Can Trustees Be Trusted? Relation Between Corporate Bond Trustees and Credit Spreads

To protect the interest of the investors, the corporate bond market in China has implemented a trustee system. However, before the first bond default happened in 2014, implicit government guarantee for the issuers ensured a market with zero default. In recent years, the rising amount of corporate bond defaults has ignited concerns about the credit risk and brings China's underdeveloped trustee system to authorities' attention. Based on the textual content of the trustee reports from 2013 to 2018, this paper examines the association between the textual content of trustee reports and the credit spreads. Results show that the extent of risk disclosure in trustee reports is positively correlated with the credit spreads. Furthermore, a higher positivity of the trustee reports is associated with lower credit spreads. These results reveal the monitoring and informational role of the trustees in China. Also, incremental explanatory power of the trustees lends support for improving corporate bond risk management.