Are there simple yet reliable indicators of banks' systemic importance? In addressing this question, this article explores three model-based measures of systemic importance and finds that bank size helps approximate each of them. A bank's total interbank lending and borrowing provide useful...

We identify three business models using balance sheet characteristics of 222 international banks and a data-driven procedure. We find that institutions engaging mainly in commercial banking activities have lower costs and more stable profits than those more heavily involved in capital market...

Even when securitised assets are simple, transparent and of high quality, risk assessments will be uncertain. This will call for safeguards against potential undercapitalisation. Since the uncertainty concentrates mainly in securitisation tranches of intermediate seniority, the safeguards...

We use tools of extreme value theory to extract information about rare events from market prices. We find that such information contributes materially to measures of banks' systemic importance. These measures exhibit strong and intuitive relationships with simple characteristics of banks'...

Prudential tools that target financial stability need to be calibrated at the level of the financial system but implemented at the level of each regulated institution. They require a methodology for the allocation of system-wide risk to the individual institution in line with its systemic...

A measure of risk premium is derived from the comparison of spot and option prices across the US equity and eurodollar markets. Risk premia in both markets co-move with volatility risk. Option prices, however, seem to underreact to changes in return volatility forecasts.

This article compares the linkages between credit fundamentals, ratings and value-at-risk measures for CDO tranches with those for corporate bond exposures. A sensitivity analysis incorporating market information and rating migrations data reveals that the behaviour of CDO tranche ratings can...

Over the past decade, many emerging markets have increased their dependence on credit from foreign banks. However, the ongoing financial crisis may prompt banks to reassess their exposures to these economies. Panel regression analysis of data since the early 1990s indicates that a deterioration...

A model-based assessment of credit risk is subject to both specification and calibration errors. Focusing on a well known credit risk model, we propose a methodology for quantifying the relative importance of alternative sources of such errors and apply this methodology to a large data set. We...

Structural credit risk models account for the average level of default rates within rating categories only when calibrated on a firm by firm basis. Nevertheless, firm-specific information matters little when one is interested in forecasting the path of default rates over time. This is because...