Optimal Credit Swap Portfolios

This paper formulates and solves the selection problem for a portfolio of credit swaps. The problem is cast as a goal program that entails a constrained optimization of preference-weighted moments of the portfolio value at the investment horizon. The portfolio value takes account of the exact timing of protection premium and default loss payments, as well as any mark-to-market profits and losses realized at the horizon. The constraints address collateral and solvency requirements, initial capital, position limits, and other trading constraints that credit swap investors often face in practice. The multimoment formulation accommodates the complex distribution of the portfolio value, which is a nested expectation under risk-neutral and actual probabilities. It also generates computational tractability. Numerical results illustrate the features of optimal portfolios. In particular, we find that credit swap investment constraints can have a significant impact on optimal portfolios, even for simple investment objectives. Our problem formulation and solution approach extend to corporate bond portfolios and mixed portfolios of corporate bonds and credit derivatives

Risk management in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper investigates the vulnerability of countries in sub - Saharan Africa to uncertainty about commodity prices, exchange rates, and interest rates. It discusses some of the instruments these countries can use to manage financial risk and conclude that instruments linked to commodity prices would significantly reduce their risk. To account for possible interactions between external risks, the paper estimates the optimal portfolio of financial instruments for sub - Saharan Africa. It shows that the risk-minimizing portfolio for sub - Saharan Africa comprises only about 30 percent of general-obligation loans and about 70 percent of loans for which repayment obligations are indexed to the price of sub - Saharan Africa's most important exports: cocoa, coffee, cotton, copper, and oil. This portfolio reduces by about 90 percent the uncertainty of sub - Saharan Africa's resources available for imports. The risk-reduction benefit of the optimal portfolio is fairly stable for specific commodities included and for the specific period for which it is estimated.Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Financial Intermediation,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies

A New Framework for Measuring the Credit Risk of a Portfolio: The "ExVaR" Model

This paper proposes a new framework for the quantitative evaluation of the credit risk of a portfolio by extending the concept of value at risk. In practice, the risk evaluation period is set individually for each transaction in the portfolio and a simulation is carried out on the movements of default probabilities, interest rates, and collateral asset prices as well as on the realization of defaults of counter parties. The result fixes the cash flow along the simulated path and leads to the present value of the total cash flows. By repeating this procedure many times, we obtain the probability distribution of the present value, by which we can evaluate the price and the risk of the portfolio. This framework enables us comprehensively and objectively to measure the risk taking into account the diversification/concentration effect, the collateral effect, and the correlation between credit risk factors and market risk factors. After presenting the methodology, the paper calculates the risk of hypothetical test portfolios. They are used to discuss the applicability of the framework to practical uses.

The History of the Quantitative Methods in Finance Conference Series. 1992-2007

This report charts the history of the Quantitative Methods in Finance (QMF) conference from its beginning in 1993 to the 15th conference in 2007. It lists alphabetically the 1037 speakers who presented at all 15 conferences and the titles of their papers.

Collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) : a primer

The following descriptive paper surveys the various types of loan securitisation and provides a working definition of so-called collateralised loan obligations (CLOs). Free of the common rhetoric and slogans, which sometimes substitute for understanding of the complex nature of structured finance, this paper describes the theoretical foundations of this specialised form of loan securitisation. Not only the distinctive properties of CLOs, but also the information economics inherent in the transfer of credit risk will be considered, so that we can equally privilege the critical aspects of security design in the structuring of CLO transactions