Berating agencies

Rising delinquencies in the US subprime mortgage sector have triggered a flood of downgrades by credit rating agencies. As a result, confidence in ratings has been shaken, and they have come under fire from investors and regulators. Is the criticism justified? Mark Pengelly investigates

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Rating agencies are under attack. A sharp rise in delinquencies in US subprime mortgage loans has forced them to embark on a plethora of rating actions since July. Hundreds of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBSs) and collateralised debt obligations of asset-backed securities (CDOs of ABSs) - including some AAA-rated tranches - have been downgraded so far, with more set to follow. The actions have severely shaken confidence in the reliability of credit ratings, and have caused

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Credit risk & modelling – Special report 2021

This Risk special report provides an insight on the challenges facing banks in measuring and mitigating credit risk in the current environment, and the strategies they are deploying to adapt to a more stringent regulatory approach.

The wild world of credit models

The Covid-19 pandemic has induced a kind of schizophrenia in loan-loss models. When the pandemic hit, banks overprovisioned for credit losses on the assumption that the economy would head south. But when government stimulus packages put wads of cash in…

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