Credit risk
Column: Andrew Kasapis
Hedge funds are using correlation strategies to take advantage of widening CDS spreads
Traders get a taste for pick and mix
Relying exclusively on third-party applications for trading, pricing and risk management of mortgage-backed and other asset-backed securities does not make sense for all buy-side firms. Alternative investment manager Highland Financial Holdings Group has…
Mexico dances to a different tune
With US structured finance markets in the grip of the subprime squeeze, close neighbour Mexico might be expected to have suffered a similar fate. But strong investor demand for securitisation and homeowner-friendly government initiatives are combining to…
Derivatives Troubles
PROCESSING MATTERS
The crucial spark
Markets
Confidence intervals for corporate default rates
Rating agency default studies provide estimates of mean default rates over multiple time horizons but have never included estimates of the standard errors of the estimates. This is due, at least in part, to the challenge of accounting for the high degree…
Tails of the unexpected
Credit Models
On thin ice
Following the near-collapse of Bear Stearns, even trades conducted with interbank dealers can no longer be considered risk-free. With so much of the derivatives market concentrated in the hands of a few dealers, what would happen if a major counterparty…
Isda AGM: Credit backlogs rise on higher volumes
Despite the efforts of dealers and intermediaries, backlogs in credit derivatives trade processing rose again in 2007, according to an Isda survey released yesterday.
Isda AGM: CDS boom continues
Volumes of credit default swaps (CDSs) traded rose 81% in 2007 to a total notional outstanding of $62.2 trillion, according to figures collected by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda).
MBS capital charges coming soon in Basel II shake-up
Basel II capital requirements on structured credit products are to be raised as part of a wide-ranging review of risk management practices for financial institutions in G-7 nations, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) has announced.
Retail investors hold key to Canadian ABCP restructuring
A vote on the Montreal Accord, the proposal to restructure C$33 billion (US$32.7 billion) of distressed non-bank Canadian asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP), is due on April 25. But with all votes counted as equal, satisfying the demands of…
Non-recourse redoubt
Non-recourse financing
Valuing CDOs of ABSs
Charles Smithson and Neil Pearson discuss the valuation of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), with a close look at CDOs of subprime residential mortage-backed securities
Credit risk: learning from the crunch
New business opportunities bring new risks. The market innovations that helped precipitate the credit crisis demonstrate that a complex new approach to risk management is required - and that means thinking beyond models based on derivatives and Basel II,…
Diverging Views
Credit ratings
Looking to beat the backlog
Special Report: Electronic trading - Trade confirmation
Structured squeeze
Japanese credit
JP Morgan CDS exposure could top $10 trillion
JP Morgan’s proposed acquisition of Bear Stearns could push the bank’s already formidable footprint in the credit default swaps (CDS) market through the $10 trillion notional barrier, raising questions over the prudence of such large concentrations…
Don't blame CPM
Credit portfolio management