A popular argument states that most of the diversification in a portfolio can be obtained with a rather small number of securities. In this paper we present three algorithms to approach the underlying NP-hard problem of portfolio optimization with a cardinality constraint. All three of these...

From a financial point of view, loan guarantees can be seen as put options on parts of the company's value. Usually, loan guarantees are valued by the model by Merton. This model, however, assumes that there are neither interest payments nor repayments of the loan itself (be it guaranteed or...

Bank regulation is supposed to reduce the probability of bank failure and, if a failure occurs, to contain the damage so that system-wide problems are unlikely. The current regulatory framework, known as Basel II, is based, among other things, on risk-adjusted capital requirements. This...