Asset correlation is a critical driver in modeling portfolio credit risk. Despite its importance, there have been few studies on the empirical relationship between asset correlation and subsequently realized default correlation, and portfolio credit risk. This three three-way relationship is the focus of our study using U.S. public firm default data from 1981 to 2006. We find the magnitude of d...

The default risk of firms is driven by firm-specific factors but also by systematic factors and the latter are responsible for default dependence between different firms. Another source of default dependence is structural links between firms. For example, a mother company may consist of different legal entities and a default of the former may be contagious and lead to the default of all others,...

Abstract. The evaluation of structured credit products like baskets and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) most often relies on the simulation of correlated default times for the underlying pool of credit instruments. Given the distribution of a default time vector one can find the distribution of the corresponding (cumulative) default quote path for a portfolio. In this note we show that t...

Credit risk represents by far the biggest risk in the activities of a traditional bank. In particular, during recession periods financial institutions loose enormous amounts as a consequence of bad loans and default events. Traditionally the risk arising from a loan contract could not be transferred and remained in the books of the lending institution until maturity. This has changed completely...

The amount of capital necessary to support a portfolio of debt securities depends on the probability distribution of the portfolio loss. Consider a portfolio of loans, each of which is subject to default resulting in a loss to the lender. Suppose the portfolio is financed partly by equity capital and partly by borrowed funds. The credit quality of the lender's notes will depend on the probabili...

The amount of capital necessary to support a portfolio of debt securities depends on the probability distribution of the portfolio loss. Consider a portfolio of loans, each of which is subject to default resulting in a loss to the lender. Suppose the portfolio is financed partly by equity capital and partly by borrowed funds. The credit quality of the lender's notes will depend on the probabili...