Feature
Banding together for SME credit risk analytics
Germany's banking associations are taking a leading role in getting the country's fragmented banking sector ready to comply with the Basel II capital Accord. Germany's savings banks association, in particular, says it has internal ratings-based systems…
Letter to the editor of Risk : a response to Cosandey and Wolf’s Avoiding pro-cyclicality
Much has been written on the proposed changes to the Basel Accord (Basel II), and we have been surprised that the vast majority of both academic and practitioner literature focuses on the prescriptive regulatory approaches and formulas to calculate…
Data hurdles
The risk management rumour mill has been buzzing in recent weeks with the story that US banking regulators have told the senior management of the country’s 30 largest banks that they will be expected to implement the advanced internal ratings-based (IRB)…
Forex renaissance
Introduction
IBM: covering all the angles
Corporate Q&A
Travelex: the one-stop currency shop
Corporate profile
How Merrill got the message
Dealer profile
Sponsor's article > Basel II and pro-cyclicality
The main argument for making regulatory capital requirements more risk-sensitive is to improve allocational efficiency. But this may lead to intensified business cycles if regulators fail to take measures to prevent such an impact.
Sponsor's article > Credit derivatives: will the market keep expanding?
This article aims to give a brief overview of some of the main trends in the credit derivatives market and also proposes to analyse some of the underlying reasons why this market is experiencing such a boom.
Sponsor's article > Preparing for Basel II - how urgent?
Delays in Basel II have lulled many into complacency. But despite lack of final details for the regulations, David Rowe argues it is not too early to begin planning and initial implementation.
Value-at-risk: down but not out
‘No more VAR.’ This increasingly shrill call is being made by a section of the academic finance community both in journals and at conferences. Now, some practitioners are latching on, offering ‘VAR-free’ portfolio optimisation that is being promoted as…
Shifting sands in the CB market
Convertible bonds
Is there a problem?
Short Selling
Pinching the systems penny
Trading technology
Tied up in FASB’s knots
Corporate equity tools
Taking stock of SSFs
Single-stock futures
Under the microscope
Wealth management
Doing the maths: physical value-at-risk
ABB’s William Rutz and Bob Fesmire investigate new tools that calculate physical value-at-risk based on simulations of generating resources and power transactions
Build in or buy out?
Is it more cost-effective for companies to buy available systems from vendors or to develop and deploy their own energy trading and risk management solutions? Bob Bridger of Vedaris looks into the dilemma faced by many companies
Fighting oil volatility
Oil cartel Opec froze its production output level at its last meeting in September. With war in Iraq on the cards, Shifa Rahman reports on the future of oil volatility
Getting protected
Insurance premiums may have rocketed for power companies over the past year but new ‘dual-trigger’ insurance products could still be an efficient way of transferring price risk. James Ockenden reports
A rollercoaster ride
Foreign exchange
Reacting to spreads
Credit derivatives