Within the structural approach for credit risk models we discuss the optimal exercise of the callable and convertible bonds. The Vasiĕk-model is applied to incorporate interest rate risk into the firm’s value process which follows a geometric Brownian motion. Finally, we derive pricing bounds...

Equity-linked notes are flexible financial products that give investors favorable capital treatment. The payoff of a note depends on the performance of a basket of equities or indices averaged over a certain period, but is bounced below by a guaranteed amount. This article presents a new model...

In recent years, a number of papers have established a new empirical regularity. Stocks of distressed firms vastly underperform those of financially healthy firms. It is not necessary to attribute the negative excess returns of distressed firms to inefficient or irrational markets. We show that...

Money markets have two functions, the allocation of liquidity and the processing of information. We develop a model that allows us to evaluate the efficiency of different money market derivatives regarding these two objectives. We assume that due to its size, a large bank receives a more precise...

Outright bank failures without prior indication of financial instability are very rare. Supervisory authorities monitor banks constantly. Thus, they usually obtain early warning signals that precede ultimate failure and, in fact, banks can be regarded as troubled to varying degrees before...

This paper proposes a rating methodology that is based on a non-linear classification method, the support vector machine, and a non-parametric technique for mapping rating scores into probabilities of default. We give an introduction to underlying statistical models and represent the results of...

This paper sets out to help explain why estimates of asset correlations based on equity prices tend to be considerably higher than estimates based on default rates. Resolving this empirical puzzle is highly important because, firstly, asset correlations are a key driver of credit risk and,...

Most credit portfolio models exclusively calculate the loss distribution for a portfolio of performing counterparts. Conservative default definitions cause considerable insecurity about the loss for a long time after the default. We present three approaches to account for defaulted counterparts...

Banks could achieve substantial improvements of their portfolio credit risk assessment by estimating rating transition matrices within a time-continuous Markov model, thereby using continuous-time rating transitions provided by internal rating systems instead of discrete-time rating information....

Ziel des vorliegenden Diskussionspapiers ist es, einen Beitrag zur Verbesserung der Vergleichbarkeit der Schätzgüteergebnisse von Insolvenzprognosestudien zu leisten. Hierzu werden zunächst in der Literatur verwendete kategoriale, ordinale und kardinale Schätzgütemaße vorgestellt. Es wird...