We reverse engineer dynamics of financial contagion to find the scenario of smallest exogenous shock that, should it occur, would lead to a given final systemic loss. This reverse stress test can be used to identify the potential triggers of systemic events, and it removes the arbitrariness in...

In this paper, we consider models of price-mediated contagion in a banking network of common asset holdings. For these models, the literature proposed two alternative classes of liquidation dynamics: threshold dynamics (banks liquidate their investment portfolios only after they have defaulted),...

We propose a systematic algorithmic reverse-stress testing methodology to create ``worst case" scenarios for regulatory stress tests by accounting for losses that arise from distressed portfolio liquidations. First, we derive the optimal bank response for any given shock. Then, we introduce an...

In this paper, we consider models of price-mediated contagion in a banking network of common asset holdings. For these models, the literature proposed two alternative classes of liquidation dynamics: threshold dynamics (banks liquidate their investment portfolios only after they have defaulted),...

Conventional wisdom holds that the models used to stress test banks should be kept secret to prevent gaming. We show instead that secrecy can be suboptimal, because although it deters gaming, it may also deter socially desirable investment. When the regulator can choose the minimum standard for...

It is apparent that climate change is creating financial risks. These risks are of such a nature that they can be regarded as systemic: they are exogenous shocks which may simultaneously cause or contribute to the failure of multiple significant financial institutions. As a result, regulatory...

When President Obama took office in 2009, the Treasury focused on restarting bank lending and repairing the ability of the banking system as a whole to perform the role of credit intermediation. In order to do so, the Treasury needed to raise public confidence that banks had sufficient buffers...

This paper shows how the combined endogenous reaction of banks and investment funds to an exogenous shock can amplify or dampen losses to the financial system compared to results from single-sector stress testing models. We build a new model of contagion propagation using a very large and...

Starting in March 2023, depositor runs quickly led to the failures of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank. In the wake of higher interest rates, uninsured depositors of these banks had lost confidence in their business model of taking in deposits and investing the...

The most recent global credit mishap of 2008, the worst financial catastrophe of the 21st century, succeeded the Great Depression of the 1930s as the worst event of all times, and used in stress testing under severely adverse scenario analysis. Rather promoting financial stability, the Basel...