Credit risk
NAIC decision to stop using rating agencies for RMBS heralds major change for US insurance industry
Concern by the NAIC over the veracity of rating agencies’ analysis of insurers’ RMBS holdings is leading to a shake-up in how these organisations are used in the US. Is this pattern set to be followed in Europe?
Replicating success
The financial crisis drummed home to many banks the advantages of quickly calculating exposures and executing hedges for complex portfolios. As a result, some banks are looking to the insurance sector and their use of replicating portfolios.
Out of wedlock
Western dealers and their Chinese counterparts have fundamentally different views on how the use of collateral agreements should underpin repurchase agreements and financial derivatives transactions. This culture clash is causing acute problems for China…
Continued high default rate in 2010 predicted by S&P
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) expects between 55 and 75 West European companies with speculative-grade credit ratings to default in 2010, continuing an above-average default rate.
Independent variable
A paper detailing alternative approaches to posting independent amount is expected to be jointly published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the Managed Funds Association and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association…
Fudge or fix?
Barclays announced in September it had sold $12.3 billion of credit assets to a newly established fund called Protium Finance. The acquisition was largely financed by a loan from Barclays, meaning the bank has insulated itself against further mark-to…
Variance-covariance-based risk allocation in credit portfolios
Mikhail Voropaev proposes high-precision analytical approximation for variance-covariance-based risk allocation in a portfolio of risky assets. A general case of a single-period multi-factor Merton-type model with stochastic recovery is considered. The…
