Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. THE BASIC MODEL SETTING -- III. MODEL 1: A SIMPLE MODEL WITH NON-RANDOM DEFAULT PROBABILITIES -- IV. INTRODUCING THE POISSON APPROXIMATION -- V. MODEL 2: THE MODEL WITH KNOWN PROBABILITIES REVISITED -- VI. MODEL 3: THE MODEL WITH RANDOM DEFAULT...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDICATOR -- III. MODEL DESCRIPTION -- IV. DATA DESCRIPTION -- V. FACTOR ANALYSIS: ESTIMATION RESULTS -- VI. COMPUTATION OF THE PROBABILITIES OF DEFAULT -- VII. SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS -- VIII. STRESS TESTING -- IX. CONCLUDING REMARKS...

Credit ratings have contributed to the current financial crisis. Proposals to regulate credit rating agencies focus on micro-prudential issues and aim at reducing conflicts of interest and increasing transparency and competition. In contrast, this paper argues that macro-prudential regulation is...