Credit risk transition probabilities between aggregate portfolio classes constitute a very useful tool when individual transition data are not available. Jones (2005) estimates Markovian Credit Transition Matrices using an adjusted least squares method. Given the arguments of Judge and Takayama...

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...

During the past two years, private equity funds have acquired substantial portfolios of nonperformingloans from banks in Germany. Typically a private equity investor does notcommit funds unless exit strategies are clearly defined. The usual exit strategies for distresseddebt investors are “fix...

The global distressed debt market has been established for some years now, however withinthis investment universe German Distressed Debt is generally considered as underdeveloped.The aim of this paper is to highlight why Investments are transacted and the framework ofprocesses involved within...

This paper first provides a simple but very general framework for credit portfolio modellingwhich is based on the distinction between systematic and unsystematic risk. Unsystematicor borrower-specific risk vanishes through diversification in a very large, infinitelyfine-grained portfolio. The...

Value at risk (VaR) is today the standard tool in risk management for banks and other financial institutions. It is defined as the worst loss for a given confidence level: For a confidence level of e.g. p=99%, one is 99% certain that at the end of a chosen risk horizon there will be no greater...

[...]The purpose of this article is to build on this earlier work, bythe Basel Committee and others, and to consider the issues thatwould have to be addressed in developing a regulatory minimumcapital standard based on banks’ internal credit risk models. Inconducting this exercise, we consider...