This paper examines the impact of refinancing on mortgage defaults based on an empirical investigation of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). We study a unique dataset from Freddie Mac which includes loans funded right before and after the HARP eligibility cutoff date, an exogenous...

The use of credit ratings has been advocated by regulators in the US as well as in Europe. The creation of “Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations” statue strengthened the appearance of the triopoly of Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch thus creating a de jure dominant...

Credit risk is the main risk in the banking sector and is as such one of key issues for financial stability. We estimate various PD models and use them in the application to credit rating classification. Models include firm specific characteristics and macroeconomic or time effects. By linking...

With the New Basle Capital Accord banks' capital requirements are determined with risk weights based on internal and external ratings and probabilities of default (PD's). PD's are mostly estimated from historical default rates. In recent working papers the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision...