This paper argues that the correlation calculations embedded in the Basel rulebook are unable to provide useful estimates of the systemic risk factor and therefore estimates of unexpected losses. This is because the nature of systemic risk is dynamic and cannot be estimated from a static model...

Despite intense criticism, agency credit ratings are still widely used in regulation and risk management. One possible alternative is to replace them with quantitative default risk measures. For US data, I find that systemically relevant losses from corporate defaults are mostly smaller if...

Revised standards for capital requirements for market risks in a bank's trading book have been issued as a result of the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book. Under the new standards, default risk needs to be measured and capitalized through a dedicated Default Risk Charge (DRC). While...

A practically oriented, top-down approach to assessing the quality of EL by backtesting with a properly defined risk measure is introduced. In a first step, the concept of risk expenses ("Cost of Risk") has to be extended beyond the classical provisioning view, toward a more adequate capital...