Risk magazine
A ripening market
Market dynamics and the chequered history of structured investments in South Africa have recently favoured vanilla products featuring capital protection. But some local issuers are gaining traction with more sophisticated offerings. John Ferry reports
Disposal expert
John Crompton, head of market investments at UK Financial Investments, talks to Alexander Campbell
Confidence crunch
Many financial institutions calibrate their required level of economic capital by considering the probability of default associated with a target debt rating. However, as the financial crisis has shown, confidence in a bank can erode before its Tier I…
Less complexity for pricing analytics
A number of software suppliers sprang up in the early part of the decade offering pricing and analytics software for ever more complex derivatives structures. In the new age of less complexity, how are these firms adapting? By Clive Davidson
A rotationally invariant technique for rare event simulation
Because of their low probability, including extreme events in Monte Carlo calculations of the value-at-risk of a credit-risky portfolio requires many simulations. Here, Susanne Klöppel, Ranja Reda and Walter Schachermayer demonstrate a geometrically…
Stung by BEE
Black economic empowerment has been a big source of profits for South African banks in recent years. But market turmoil means many deals are underwater, and some market participants have likened the situation to the US subprime mortgage crisis. Mark…
Eurex cuts no Ice
The July 31 deadline for central clearing of credit default swaps in Europe was successfully met by dealers and clearing platforms. Both Eurex and IntercontinentalExchange have launched clearing services in Europe, but take-up for Eurex’s has so far been…
A variable response to pro-cyclicality
Ensuring banks put in place counter-cyclical capital buffers has become a key area of focus for regulators across the globe, with some proposing capital buffers be based on financial or macro variables. Alessandro Conciarelli and Mario Quagliariello…
Spotlight on exposure
The pricing of derivatives credit charges and risk management of counterparty credit risk portfolios pose many challenges. Julian Keenan reviews the approaches available and makes some recommendations
Credit pricing principles
In the wake of the financial crisis, some dealers acknowledged they were lax in pricing credit into derivatives trades, and pledged to be more attentive in future. With confidence now returning to the market, will competitive pressures overrule these…
The Thomson test
A restructuring of debt by Paris-based media and electronics firm Thomson has provided an early test for the small bang protocol. The initial stages of the settlement process highlighted a number of outstanding issues, not least the treatment of index…
Trouble brewing
Despite early signs the US recession may be over, the short-term future for many of the country’s small and medium-sized banks looks grim as they struggle to deal with mounting losses on whole loan portfolios. By Rob Davies
Fixed returns?
Banks have reported huge profits this year in fixed income, with swaps desks benefiting from flows off the back of sovereign and corporate debt issuance. Exotic desks, in contrast, have seen a substantial decline in investor interest. Peter Madigan…
A matter of trust
More than a year on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, administrators are still trawling through the estate of Lehman Brothers International (Europe). A scheme of arrangement designed to speed up the return of trust assets to clients failed to win…
Regulating speculation
The role of speculation, the likely introduction of position limits and financial regulatory reform has dominated the agenda of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in recent months. Chairman Gary Gensler speaks to Mark Pengelly in an exclusive…
The liquidity lifeline
The Basel Committee intends to introduce internationally binding liquidity standards, to include both a requirement for a liquid assets buffer and longer-term structural funding constraints. How will the measures be calculated and what will the…
