Modeling Credit Risk and Pricing Credit Derivatives

by Martin Wolf

Banks are financial intermediaries originating loans and consequently facing credit risk. Credit risk can be defined as the risk of losses caused by the default or by the deterioration in credit quality of a borrower. Default occurs when a borrower cannot meet his key financial obligations to pay principal and interest. Banks increasingly recognize the need to measure and manage the credit risk of the loans they have originated not only on a loan-by-loan basis but also on a portfolio basis. A precondition for diversification after the origination of the loans is their transferability. But as it is wellknown transferring credit risk of loans is difficult due to severe adverse selection and moral hazard problems. That is why the use of existing tools like loan sales has not been very successful in transferring the credit risk on a broad scale. However, in recent years, the development of markets for credit securitization and credit derivatives has provided new tools for managing credit risk. Credit derivatives are often described as „synthetic loans" which reflects only too narrowly their common use and enormous potential. More broadly defined credit derivatives are sophisticated financial instruments that enable the unbundling and intermediation of credit. A risk seller, which is the party seeking credit risk protection, may want to reduce exposures while maintaining relationships that may be endangered by selling their loans, reduce or diversify illiquid exposures, or reduce exposures while avoiding adverse tax or accounting treatment. A risk buyer, the party assuming credit risk, may want to diversify credit exposures, get access to credit markets which are otherwise restricted by corporate statute or off-limits by regulation, or simply exploit arbitrage pricing discrepancies, for example resulting from perceived mispricing between bank loans and subordinated debt of the same issuer. The pricing and management of credit derivatives requ

148 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2001

About the author

Martin Wolf is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 for services to financial journalism. Wolf won the Overseas Press Club of America’s prize for Best Commentary in 2013 and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gerald Loeb Awards. He was a member of the UK’s Independent Commission on Banking in 2010-11. Wolf is the author of The Shifts and The Shocks: What We’ve Learned— and Have Still to Learn—from the Financial Crisis.