Nineteen-ninety-four was a relatively lackluster year for the high yield market with relatively low defaults combined with slightly negative total returns. When viewed in comparative terms with other fixed income securities markets, however, high yield debt performed quite well. Compared to long...

Nineteen-ninety five was an excellent year for the high yield market with relatively low defaults combined with returns of almost 20%, the highest since 1991. When viewed in comparative terms with other fixed income securities markets, however, the high yield debt market s performance in 1995...

Full year 1999 was again a mixed performance year for the high yield bondmarket in the United States but for different reasons than the mixed 1998performance. Once again, total returns were lackluster, registering just +1.73%. But, unlike last year s companion negative return spread vs. U.S....

Nineteen-ninety-eight was a mixed performance year for the high yield bond market in the United States , with much below average returns and spreads over default-risk-free Treasury Bonds but continued relatively low default rates and losses and another record year of new insurance. Returns and...

Surveys on the use of agency credit ratings reveal that most investors believe that rating agencies are relatively slow in adjusting their ratings. (...)

In 2008 and 2009, bondholders of ailing companies were affected by a reemergenceof an important corporate restructuring strategy, known as a Distressed Exchange.Fourteen companies in 2008 completed this desperate attempt to avoid a formal bankruptcy filing – about twice as many as any single...

Forty years ago, I developed a method of predicting bankruptcies by U.S. [public] companies that makes use of equity market values as well as fundamental financial and operating data. Since that time, my 'Z-Score' model has become one of the most widely used methods for assessing the...

The authors are the Max L. Heine and John M. Schiff Professors of Finance, Stern School of Business, NYU. This is an updated and revised paper from the authors report on quot;An Analysis and Critique of the BIS Proposal on Capital Adequacy and Ratings,quot; (submitted to the BIS and published in...

This paper has examined two specific aspects of stage 1 of the (BIS's) Bank for International Settlement's proposed reforms to the 8% risk-based capital ratio. We argue that relying on quot;traditionalquot; agency ratings could produce cyclically lagging rather leading capital requirements,...

In recent years, the literature of financial distress has been enriched by the development of formal models. This paper develops a synthesis of that formal analysis, linking it to related finance literature and corporate strategies for distressed financial restructuring. Several key assumptions...