Residential mortgage rates in Hong Kong have fallen to a historic low level since late 2004, largely because of severe competition and the prevailing exceptionally low funding cost of the banks. Because of the abundance of liquidity in the banking system, HIBOR is at an abnormally deep discount...

Under the framework of Basel II, banks which adopt the internal ratings-based approach will be required to compare their actual provisions with expected losses. Any shortfall (i.e., the expected loss exceeds the provision) should be deducted from capital of the bank. It is therefore important to...

The empirical results show that after the introduction of the three refinements to the Linked Exchange Rate system in May 2005 the Hong Kong dollar follows a bounded process that is consistent with a fully credible exchange rate band. The bounded process will limit the movements of the exchange...

While the US dollar and Japanese yen are considered as safe-haven currencies, both their sovereign credit default swap (CDS) spreads and exchange rate have varied in a wide range since late 2007. This raises the question of interconnectivity between the anticipated sovereign credit risk and the...

This paper proposes a model to estimiate option-implied correlation embedded in options on the iTraxx Europe indexes as a measure of the spillover effect of default risk between the financial and corporate sectors in Europe. The correlation structure between the iTraxx Financials and...

Following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in mid-September 2008, there were severe disruptions in international money markets and banks reportedly faced severe liquidity shocks in particular US dollar funding shortages, prompting central banks around the world to adopt unprecedented policy...

This paper proposes a path-dependent approach for estimating realignment probabilities of targeted exchange rates based on first-passage-time distributions instead of the commonly used path-independent approach. We consider that path dependency is an intrinsic characteristic of realignment risk...

This paper assesses whether agency ratings and market-based default risk measures are consistent for East Asian banks during the period 1996 to 2006. While the market-based measures are broadly consistent with the credit rating assessments for banks in developed economies, the discrepancy...

This paper proposes a path-dependent approach for estimating maximum appreciations of the renminbi expected by the market based on first-passage-time distributions. Using market data of the renminbi spot exchange rates, non-deliverable forward rates and currency option prices from 21 July 2005...