Starting from the structural model developed by Merton (1974) and the derived notion of distance-to-default, we study the determinants of credit default swap (CDS) spreads for a sample of European banks over a period from January 2006 to December 2011. In particular, we test variables that are...

Currency and interest rate swaps are subject to a complex, two-sided default risk. Several theoretical papers have addressed the problem of pricing swap credit risk. I propose a complete implementation procedure of the structural line of research in theoretical credit risk analysis in order to...

Standard sector classification frameworks present drawbacks that might hinder portfolio manager. This paper introduces a new non-parametric approach to equity classification. Returns are decomposed into their fundamental drivers through Independent Component Analysis (ICA). Stocks are then...

This paper is an opinion on the public consultation on possible changes to the Capital Requirements Directive1 and more particularly on the Annex IX Part 2 (item 10 on the Technical Amendments to Directive 2006/48/Ec), related to the significance of the risk transfer in the context of...

This paper studies the performance of a sample of funds of hedge funds (FoHFs) from January 1994 to August 2009. We apply the false discoveries (FD) technique of Barras, Scaillet and Wermers (2010) to separate the FoHFs into skilled, zero-alpha and unskilled. We measure the alpha of the FoHFs...

This article examines the performance of alternative UCITS funds on the basis of manager offshore experience and, additionally, the existence of an “equivalent” offshore hedge fund. Managers with offshore experience are defined as management companies managing offshore hedge funds in...

This paper presents an alternative modelling of the term structure of the credit spreads under a structural approach. We rely upon the barrier option pricing frameworkto price a corporate zero-coupon bond with a stochastic present value of the recovery consistent with the evidence on the...

Currency and interest rate swaps are subject to a complex, two-sided default risk. Several theoretical papers have recently addressed the problem of pricing swap credit risk. We implement a recent credit risk pricing model in order to attempt to evaluate a line of research in theoretical credit...

Currency and interest rate swaps are subject to a complex, two-sided default risk. Although several theoretical papers have recently addressed the problem of pricing swap credit risk, the empirical literature is almost non-existent. This is the only study we know of that uses actual transaction...