Fitch Ratings
Fitch upgrades capacity for CDO default risk tool
Fitch Ratings has upgraded its Default Vector model, which evaluates default risk in collateralised debt obligation (CDO) portfolios.
Freddie Mac opts for OpVar
Quasi-government US mortgage agency, Freddie Mac, has chosen Fitch Risk's OpVar software suite to manage its operational risk.
Basel II revised default correlation values reflect industry experience, says Fitch
Basel II revised credit card default correlation values will be crucial guidelines to credit portfolio analysis under the IRB approach, says Fitch Ratings, a rating agency based in New York.
Seduced by CDOs
The insurance arm of the Italian Post Office has been the country’s leading issuer of capital-guaranteed equity investments based on CDOs – portfolios of securitised debt. But when the underlying CDOs were downgraded, the retail products suffered too
SAS appoints business development manager
Technology company SAS has appointed a new business development manager to oversee its risk management practice.
Behind closed doors
The method used by rating agencies to determine rating actions has often been portrayed as a shadowy and secretive process. Nancy Stroker tries to shed some light on the matter.
Rating reform
The winds of change that have been forecast to sweep through the credit rating industry are growing stronger, fanned by a set of proposals released by an influential group of finance and treasury bodies, as Saskia Scholtes reports.
Fitch finds CDS participants should act before times of stress
Credit default swaps (CDS), although an efficient risk management tool, should not be used solely in reaction to times of greatest stress when many corporates are illiquid, said a Fitch Ratings special report, Liquidity in the credit default swap market:…
Banks making big op risk advances, says Fitch
More than 70% of the world's major banks will have developed tools for monitoring operational risk indicators and will be using risk and control self assessments by 2007, according to rating agency Fitch.
Energy clearing in Catch 22 situation, says Fitch
Denise Furey, New York-based senior director of global power at rating agency Fitch, believes the clearing of over-the-counter energy derivatives contracts is in something of a ‘Catch 22’ predicament.
Fitch formalises corporate governance's impact on credit risk
Fitch Ratings has formalised and released its framework for reviewing corporate governance. The rating agency characterises governance's impact on credit ratings as an important element in the assessment of a company's credit quality.
Major op risk software providers grow at expense of smaller rivals
Sales of operational risk solutions seem to be on the rise, but it is established vendors who are seeing deals close. Many small or new software houses in the op risk space seem still to be experiencing a lull in sales.
Basel II will reduce securitisation by banks, but won’t alter bank ratings, says Fitch Ratings
The implementation of the more risk-reflective Basel II will reduce the attraction of securitisation as a means of lowering banks’ regulatory capital requirements, but is unlikely to change the ratings of originating banks, according to a special report…
Basel II just the beginning for operational risk monitoring in banks, says Fitch
Compliance with Basel II is only the first step in the management of operational risk in financial institutions, according to Fitch Ratings, an international rating agency.
No Nera for agencies
Moody's and S&P claim that a recently commissioned study supports their belief that not all agencies' ratings are equal. Fitch, meanwhile, takes a different line of argument. Saskia Scholtes examines the notches that have driven a wedge between the…
Fitch launches online credit derivatives tool
Fitch, the international rating agency, today launched a new web-based service providing data and analysis for the credit derivatives market.
RMA signs up for OpVantage First database
The Risk Management Association (RMA) has signed up to use OpVantage's First (financial institutions risk scenario trend) database. OpVantage, a division of rating agency Fitch, provides operational risk software to the industry.
RMA signs up for OpVantage First database
The Risk Management Association (RMA) has signed up to use OpVantage's First (financial institutions risk scenario trend) database. OpVantage, a division of rating agency Fitch, provides operational risk software to the industry.
A slow recovery
Oil
Trade bodies back credit rating agency reforms
Washington, DC - Several financial industry trade associations are supporting reforms to the recognition of credit rating agencies in the US.
Deregulation versus re-regulation
While the US authorities are still ironing kinks out of a major electricity market redesign and looking to repeal the utility industry’s most influential Act, US regulators and self regulators are moving to fill the vacuum. Catherine Lacoursière reports
US defaults down, recoveries up, says Fitch
The default rate in the United States has fallen 69%, while recovery rates went up by 50% in the first half of 2003, according to Fitch Ratings.
CDOs “generally unaffected” by Mirant and Loral bankruptcy filings, says Fitch
Rating agency Fitch has examined the collateralised debt obligations (CDO) that it rates for exposure to troubled companies Mirant and Loral and concluded that they are “generally unaffected” by their bankruptcy filings.
US power sector slows decline - Fitch
The US power sector has seen little more than a “deceleration in the rate of its decline” in 2003, according to Richard Hunter, managing director of rating agency Fitch’s global power group.