The work report first describes the current developments on the German market for nonperformingloans, which after its peak in spring 2007 is now also affected by the financialcrisis. The sale of small and medium-size portfolios is described within the scope of a casestudy. Furthermore, the...

In this paper we examine the problem of partially hedging a given credit risk exposure. We derive hedges which satisfy certain optimality criteria: For a given investment into the hedge they minimize the remaining risk, or vice versa. This is motivated by the fact that it is a core business of...

This paper provides a simple model of the rescheduling of debt following a sovereign default as a bond exchange.

This analysis reveals the restricted scope of approaches which utilise arbitrage based arguments toprice contingent claims whose payoffs are determined by the outcome of non-zero-sum valuationgames between financial market participants. Many examples of such model formulations can befound, for...

This paper develops a default-risky bond pricing model, which assumes that the default intensity is driven by a Markov chain and which accounts for default and liquidity risk. A representation of the bond price dynamics, which separates three different types of risk, was obtained. Introducing...

In this paper, we measure the impact of a downturn in the automobile industry on thesolvency of 28 large German banks. The choice of the stressed sector is motivated by theimportant role which the automobile industry plays in the German economy, not the leastbecause of its close ties to other...

This paper sets out to help explain why estimates of asset correlations based on equityprices tend to be considerably higher than estimates based on default rates. Resolving thisempirical puzzle is highly important because, rstly, asset correlations are a key driver ofcredit risk and, secondly,...

For a sample of 267 financially distressed German corporations, I analyze firms'decision to recapitalize by raising fresh equity. I find evidence consistent with thehypothesis that wealth transfers from owners to creditor resulting from a costlydebt overhang present a potential impediment to a...

In this study we empirically investigate the effect of financial distress on cor-porate ownership and control. Our analysis is based on a panel of 267 Germanfirms that suffered from repeated interest coverage shortfalls and steep share pricedeclines between 1996 and 2004. We track each firm's...

We propose a simple and implementable model of credit contagion where we in-clude macro- and microstructural dependencies among the debtors within a creditportfolio. We show that, even for diversified portfolios, moderate microstructuraldependencies have already a significant impact on the tails...