Feature
The usual upsets
Regulation
Put to the test
Stress-testing
Relief in store
Q&A
Baltic breakdown
Comment
Let the right one in
Structured Products
The shock of the interaction
Banks have long talked about enterprise risk management, but many have historically measured risk types separately and aggregated the results. The financial crisis has highlighted that credit and market risk are closely linked. What are the challenges to…
Getting the cycle to work
Regulators are keen for banks to take a through-the-cycle approach, as opposed to point-in-time, when calculating bank capital. But how are banks responding to the change? By Duncan Wood
Recovering from 'Hurricane Lehman'
Catastrophe bonds
Dark clouds descend
Cover story
Cleaning up the buy side
Data management
Toughing it out
Equity derivatives
The bank capital burden
Keenly awaited Basel II trading book rules were due to be decided upon as Risk went to press. Market participants worry the measures could retard the development of risk models and even kill off whole business lines Mark Pengelly reports
The bespoke conundrum
The dealer community has pushed towards standardisation of credit default swaps contracts, enabling them to meet a regulatory goal of ensuring a large chunk of the credit derivatives market is cleared through central counterparties. What implications…
The art of debt
Governments across the globe face huge increases in borrowing requirements, sparking concern over possible rating downgrades, while many have seen their credit default swap spreads widen dramatically. Despite this, sovereign debt management offices claim…
Retention rage
The European Parliament and the US Treasury are pushing ahead with plans to introduce retention charges for securitisation deals in an effort to align the interests of investors and originators. But market participants complain the move is ill-conceived…
Avoiding dividend meltdown
Dealers are starting to pay closer attention to dividend risk housed on their exotic books after many incurred sizeable losses last year. What are banks doing differently and can another dividend meltdown be avoided? Matt Cameron reports
The reality of risk-free
Warnings over the stability of the UK's AAA rating by Standard & Poor's in May have caused analysts to question whether other AAA rated sovereigns - including the US - are at risk of downgrades, given ballooning debt levels. What implications does this…
The Bair necessities
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman Sheila Bair has argued that systemically important financial institutions should hold more capital as a disincentive to growth, while a new entity should be set up to manage the orderly resolution of…
Yen for yield
The Japanese government inflation-linked bond market has received a severe battering over the past year. The resulting dislocation has prompted the Ministry of Finance to consider restructuring the market, but what options are on the table? Matt Cameron…
The data dilemma
While institutions continue to put huge resources into creating standard repositories holding 'golden copies' of financial data, there is growing support for the view that the industry would be better off standardising the data at source, and thereby…
Too many cooks?
The financial crisis has revealed the failure of regulators to detect major threats to the stability of the financial system in advance. A number of new authorities are now emerging to monitor systemic risk, but is it possible problems could still fall…
CDS: Spreads rally as investor confidence rises
Credit default swap 5-year mid-levels for structured products issuers (June 30)
CDS: Spreads tighten for second day
Credit default swap 5-year mid-levels for structured products issuers (June 29)
CDS: Spreads tighten; shrugs off UBS woes
Credit default swap 5-year mid-levels for structured products issuers (June 26)