Modelling, Pricing, and Hedging Counterparty Credit Exposure

It was the end of 2005 when our employer, a major European Investment Bank, gave our team the mandate to compute in an accurate way the counterparty credit exposure arising from exotic derivatives traded by the ?rm. As often happens, - posure of products such as, for example, exotic interest-rate, or credit derivatives were modelled under conservative assumptions and credit of?cers were struggling to assess the real risk. We started with a few models written on spreadsheets, t- lored to very speci?c instruments, and soon it became clear that a more systematic approach was needed. So we wrote some tools that could be used for some classes of relatively simple products. A couple of years later we are now in the process of building a system that will be used to trade and hedge counterparty credit ex- sure in an accurate way, for all types of derivative products in all asset classes. We had to overcome problems ranging from modelling in a consistent manner different products booked in different systems and building the appropriate architecture that would allow the computation and pricing of credit exposure for all types of pr- ucts, to ?nding the appropriate management structure across Business, Risk, and IT divisions of the ?rm. In this book we describe some of our experience in modelling counterparty credit exposure, computing credit valuation adjustments, determining appropriate hedges, and building a reliable system.

Roadmap to finding practical solutions to the problem of computing counterparty credit exposure for large books of both vanilla and exotic derivatives usually traded by large Investment Banks Combines a rigorous but simple mathematical approach with a practical view of the financial problem at hand Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Giovanni Cesari is Managing Director at UBS. He has more than 10 years' experience in modelling and pricing counterparty credit exposure. Before moving to finance, Giovanni worked for several years in particle physics and in theoretical computer science. Giovanni holds a Laurea in Electrical Engineering from the University of Trieste, a Perfezionamento in Physics from the University of Padova, and a Ph.D. from ETH, Zurich. John Aquilina holds an M.Phil. in Statistical Science from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in Mathematical Finance from the University of Bath. He has worked on modelling counterparty credit exposure at UBS since 2005. Niels Charpillon holds a Diplôme d'Ingénieur from Ecole des Mines, an M.Sc. in Financial Mathematics from Warwick Business School, and a Licence in Economics from University of St. Etienne. He joined the counterparty exposure team at UBS in 2006. Zlatko Filipovic started working for UBS in 2005 as a Quantitative Analyst in the counterparty exposure team. Before joining UBS, Zlatko had been working for Mako Global Derivatives, London, as a Financial Engineer. Zlatko obtained a Ph.D. in Quantitative Finance from Imperial College, London, after graduating from the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade. Gordon Lee joined the counterparty exposure team at UBS in 2006. Prior to UBS, he was a Senior Associate in quantitative risk and performance analysis at Wilshire Associates. Gordon holds an M.A. in Mathematics from Churchill College, University of Cambridge. Ion Manda holds a Diploma de Inginer in Software Engineering from the University of Bucharest and a M.Sc. in Financial Engineering from Birkbeck College, University of London. He has been working in the credit exposure team at UBS since 2006. Ion has about 10 years' experience as a software engineer.

Klappentext
Building an accurate representation of firm-wide credit exposure, used for both trading and risk management, raises significant theoretical and technical challenges. This volume can be considered as a roadmap to finding practical solutions to the problem of modelling, pricing, and hedging counterparty credit exposure for large portfolios of both vanilla and exotic derivatives, usually traded by large Investment Banks. It is divided into four parts, (I) Methodology, (II) Architecture and Implementation, (III) Products, and (IV) Hedging and Managing Counterparty Risk. Starting from a generic modelling and valuation framework based on American Monte Carlo techniques, it presents a software architecture, which, with its modular design, allows the computation of credit exposure in a portfolio-aggregated and scenario-consistent way. An essential part of the design is the definition of a programming language, which allows trade representation based on dynamic modelling features. Several chapters are then devoted to the analysis of credit exposure across all asset classes, namely foreign exchange, interest rate, credit derivatives and equity. Finally it considers how to mitigate and hedge counterparty exposure. The crucial question of dynamic hedging is addressed by constructing a hybrid product, the Contingent-Credit Default Swap. This volume addresses, from a quantitative perspective, recent developments related to counterparty credit exposure computation. Its unique characteristic is the combination of a rigorous but simple mathematical approach with a practical view of the financial problem at hand. "...a fantastic book that covers all aspects of credit exposure modelling. Nowhere else can the interested reader find such a comprehensive collection of insights around this topic covering methodology, implementation, products and applications. A "must read" for practitioners and quants working in this space." JörgBehrens, Fintegral Consulting, CH "In the aftermath of the credit crunch, nobody will need convincing of the importance of managing counterparty risk. This unique book provides a consistent approach to the subject, taken all the way from underlying concepts to the nuts and bolts of computer architecture. It opens up many avenues for future research and throws down a challenge to the industry at large: any organization whose techniques are not at least as good as the ones described here had better shape up!" Mark Davis, Imperial College London, UK "impressive mathematical monograph first unified and comprehensive approach to pricing and measuring counterparty credit exposures and, therefore, an essential must-have for all quantitatively oriented credit risk manager, academic researchers, and mathematics students alike takes into account a unified approach for modelling the future economic scenarios across all asset classes under risk-neutral measure while generating a theoretic as well as technical framework for calculating credit and debit valuation adjustments easily adapted to calculating the price of credit risk flexible enough to price complex and hybrid financial derivatives in a completely scenario consistent way. These features make the book an absolutely outstanding and highly recommendable treatise" Marcus R.W. Martin, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, D

Inhalt
Methodology.- Modelling Framework.- Simulation Models.- Valuation and Sensitivities.- Architecture and Implementation.- Computational Framework.- Implementation.- Architecture.- Products.- Interest-Rate Products.- Equity, Commodity, Inflation and FX Products.- Credit Derivatives.- Structures.- Hedging and Managing Counterparty Risk.- Counterparty Risk Aggregation and Risk Mitigation.- Combining Market and Credit Risk.- Pricing Counterparty Credit Risk.