12.07.2015 Views

Derivatives in Plain Words by Frederic Lau, with a ... - HKU Libraries

Derivatives in Plain Words by Frederic Lau, with a ... - HKU Libraries

Derivatives in Plain Words by Frederic Lau, with a ... - HKU Libraries

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS
  • No tags were found...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

derivatives operations. Similar to other f<strong>in</strong>ancial derivatives, banks need tomanage related market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, operational risk, legalrisk and regulatory risk of credit derivatives.On the other hand, credit derivatives br<strong>in</strong>g up a new topic for regulatorsrelat<strong>in</strong>g to the capital adequacy requirement regime. For credit default swaps,the protection seeker to a large extent reduces the orig<strong>in</strong>al credit exposure.However, <strong>in</strong> the process, it acquires a new counterparty risk - the creditrisk of the protection provider. How this improved credit exposure situationshould be treated <strong>in</strong> terms of capital adequacy ratio (CAR) is a sensitive issuefor regulators. For credit l<strong>in</strong>ked notes and total return swaps, banks get ridof some of the orig<strong>in</strong>al credit risk but also acquire new price risk andcounterparty risk. These are also CAR-related issues regulators have to deal<strong>with</strong>.POTENTIAL IMPACT OF CREDIT DERIVATIVES TO THE BANKING INDUSTRYTo banks, credit derivatives are not just another f<strong>in</strong>ancial <strong>in</strong>novation. Theymay alter the traditional way banks and f<strong>in</strong>ancial <strong>in</strong>stitutions conduct theirbank<strong>in</strong>g bus<strong>in</strong>esses. As we all know, at least two thirds (some even say 90percent) of risks <strong>in</strong> bank<strong>in</strong>g activities relate to credit, and credit risk isextremely difficult to quantify and manage. Credit derivatives provide bankers<strong>with</strong> a genu<strong>in</strong>e tool to deal <strong>with</strong> credit issues. For example, a bank canreduce its property exposure us<strong>in</strong>g credit derivatives if management th<strong>in</strong>ksthat the property exposure of the bank is too high.Credit derivatives are <strong>in</strong> a way like mortgage bank<strong>in</strong>g bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>in</strong> the USwhere mortgage orig<strong>in</strong>ators package pools of mortgage loans, unbundle them<strong>in</strong>to pieces, and sell them to different types of <strong>in</strong>vestors <strong>in</strong> the secondarymarket. Mortgage orig<strong>in</strong>ators collect the orig<strong>in</strong>ation fees, keep the servic<strong>in</strong>gright of these loans and earn a servic<strong>in</strong>g spread. Similarly, credit derivativesunbundle the credit risk from a f<strong>in</strong>ancial <strong>in</strong>strument. They give banks moreoptions to diversify their portfolios, alter their asset/liability managementstrategies, maneuver their regulatory capital structures, etc. The mortgagebank<strong>in</strong>g bus<strong>in</strong>ess was an <strong>in</strong>novation <strong>in</strong> the 80s and later became an <strong>in</strong>dustryCredit <strong>Derivatives</strong>KSm

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!