In this paper we review the models of joint defaults of the current major industry-sponsored credit risk frameworks. Recognizing the need for further improvements of these models, we address the following issues. First, we identify the most important modeling drawbacks that could be fixed on a...

Starting from the Merton framework for firm defaults, we provide the analytics and robustness of the relationship between default correlations. We show that loans with higher default probabilities will not only have higher variances but also higher correlations between loans. As a consequence,...