In June 2003 Swiss banks held over CHF 500 billion in mortgages. This important segment accounts for about 63% of all loan portfolios of Swiss banks. Since default insurance is not common in Switzerland, the corresponding risks are a severe threat for the health of the financial system. We...

We derive a general framework for collateral risk control determination for central bank's open market operations. This framework allows us to determine the schedule of haircuts consistent with the risk tolerated by the central bank while at the same time reducing the possibility of arbitrage...

We investigate the influence of various variables on credit default swap transaction data. Credit derivatives are arguably a superior proxy to credit risk than bond spreads. The variables considered include fixed-income as well as equity markets data. We thus provide an international analysis of...

This paper presents a utility-based approach to value the borrower optimal behavior in presence of credit risk. The paper solves for the dynamic portfolio choices of a borrower. We thereby show that the presence of debt leads to a substantial modification in the borrower's behavior across states...

In this paper we discuss some statistical pitfalls that may occur in modeling cross-dependences with copulas in financial applications. In particular we focus on issues arising in the estimation and the empirical choice of copulas as well as in the design of time-dependent copulas.

We examine the quantification of operational risk for banks. We adopt a financial-economics approach and interpret operational risk management as a means of optimizing the profitability of an institution along its value chain. We start by defining operational risk and then propose a...

Extreme Value Theory (EVT) has develop ed very rapidly over the past two decades both methodologically and with respect to applications. Whereas (non–life) actuaries have, at least implicitly, used EVT techniques for a long time, mainly through the emergence of quantitative Risk Management, EVT...

We cionsider semiparmetric assymetric kernel density estimators when the unkonwn density has support on [0,∞). We provide a unifying framework which contains assymmetric kernel versions of several semiparametric density estimators considered previously in the literature. This framework allows...

In this paper, we characterize explicitly the first derivative of the Value at Risk and the Expected Shortfall with respect to portfolio allocation when netting between positions exists. As a particular case, we examine a simple Gaussian example in order to illustrate the impact of netting...

This paper considers the problem of investment of capital in risky assets in adynamic capital market in continuous time. The problem addressed is the control of risk, and in particular the risk associated with errors in the estimation of returns on assets. The framework for investment risk is a...