Quantitative Finance

This paper investigates whether a financial system can be made more stable if financial institutions share risk by exchanging contingent convertible (CoCo) debt obligations. The question is framed in a financial network model of debt and equity interlinkages with the addition of a variant of the CoCo that converts continuously when a bank's equity-debt ratio drops to a trigger level. The main theoretical result is a complete characterization of the clearing problem for the interbank debt and equity at the maturity of the obligations. We then introduce stylized networks to study when introducing contingent convertible bonds improves financial stability, as well as specific networks for which contingent convertible bonds do not provide uniformly improved system performance. To return to the main question, we examine the EU financial network at the time of the 2011 EBA stress test to do comparative statics to study the implications of CoCo debt on financial stability. It is found that by replacing all unsecured interbank debt by standardized CoCo interbank debt securities, systemic risk in the EU will decrease and bank shareholder value will increase.

The contour map of estimation error of Expected Shortfall (ES) is constructed. It allows one to quantitatively determine the sample size (the length of the time series) required by the optimization under ES of large institutional portfolios for a given size of the portfolio, at a given confidence level and a given estimation error.

Evaluation of systemic risk in networks of financial institutions in general requires information of inter-institution financial exposures. In the framework of Debt Rank algorithm, we introduce an approximate method of systemic risk evaluation which requires only node properties, such as total assets and liabilities, as inputs. We demonstrate that this approximation captures a large portion of systemic risk measured by Debt Rank. Furthermore, using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate network structures that can amplify systemic risk. Indeed, while no topology in general sense is {\em a priori} more stable if the market is liquid [1], a larger complexity is detrimental for the overall stability [2]. Here we find that the measure of scalar assortativity correlates well with level of systemic risk. In particular, network structures with high systemic risk are scalar assortative, meaning that risky banks are mostly exposed to other risky banks. Network structures with low systemic risk are scalar disassortative, with interactions of risky banks with stable banks.

Risk measures connect probability theory or statistics to optimization, particularly to convex optimization. They are nowadays standard in applications of finance and in insurance involving risk aversion. This paper investigates a wide class of risk measures on Orlicz spaces. The characterizing function describes the decision maker's risk assessment towards increasing losses. We link the risk measures to a crucial formula developed by Rockafellar for the Average Value-at-Risk based on convex duality, which is fundamental in corresponding optimization problems. We characterize the dual and provide complementary representations.

Quantile aggregation with dependence uncertainty has a long history in probability theory with wide applications in finance, risk management, statistics, and operations research. Using a recent result on inf-convolution of quantile-based risk measures, we establish new analytical bounds for quantile aggregation which we call convolution bounds. In fact, convolution bounds unify every analytical result and contribute more to the theory of quantile aggregation, and thus these bounds are genuinely the best one available. Moreover, convolution bounds are easy to compute, and we show that they are sharp in many relevant cases. Convolution bounds enjoy several other advantages, including interpretability on the extremal dependence structure, tractability, and theoretical properties. The results directly lead to bounds on the distribution of the sum of random variables with arbitrary dependence, and we illustrate a few applications in operations research.

The ability to adequately model risks is crucial for insurance companies. The method of "Copula-based hierarchical risk aggregation" by Arbenz et al. offers a flexible way in doing so and has attracted much attention recently. We briefly introduce the aggregation tree model as well as the sampling algorithm proposed by they authors. An important characteristic of the model is that the joint distribution of all risk is not fully specified unless an additional assumption (known as "conditional independence assumption") is added. We show that there is numerical evidence that the sampling algorithm yields an approximation of the distribution uniquely specified by the conditional independence assumption. We propose a modified algorithm and provide a proof that under certain conditions the said distribution is indeed approximated by our algorithm. We further determine the space of feasible distributions for a given aggregation tree model in case we drop the conditional independence assumption. We study the impact of the input parameters and the tree structure, which allows conclusions of the way the aggregation tree should be designed.

A standard quantitative method to access credit risk employs a factor model based on joint multivariate normal distribution properties. By extending a one-factor Gaussian copula model to make a more accurate default forecast, this paper proposes to incorporate a state-dependent recovery rate into the conditional factor loading, and model them by sharing a unique common factor. The common factor governs the default rate and recovery rate simultaneously and creates their association implicitly. In accordance with Basel III, this paper shows that the tendency of default is more governed by systematic risk rather than idiosyncratic risk during a hectic period. Among the models considered, the one with random factor loading and a state-dependent recovery rate turns out to be the most superior on the default prediction.

The utility of Potential Future Exposure (PFE) for counterparty trading limits is being challenged by new market developments, notably widespread regulatory Initial Margin (using 99% 10-day exposure), and netting of trade and collateral flows. However PFE has pre-existing challenges w.r.t. portfolios/distributions, collateralization, netting set seniority, and overlaps with CVA. We introduce Potential Future Loss (PFL) which combines expected shortfall (ES) and loss given default (LGD) as a replacement for PFE. With two additional variants Adjusted PFL (aPFL) and Protected Adjusted PFL (paPFL) these deal with both new and pre-existing challenges. We provide a theoretical background and numerical examples.

Statistical inference of the dependence between objects often relies on covariance matrices. Unless the number of features (e.g. data points) is much larger than the number of objects, covariance matrix cleaning is necessary to reduce estimation noise. We propose a method that is robust yet flexible enough to account for fine details of the structure covariance matrix. Robustness comes from using a hierarchical ansatz and dependence averaging between clusters; flexibility comes from a bootstrap procedure. This method finds several possible hierarchical structures in DNA microarray gene expression data, and leads to lower realized risk in global minimum variance portfolios than current filtering methods when the number of data points is relatively small.

We review recent progress in modeling credit risk for correlated assets. We start from the Merton model which default events and losses are derived from the asset values at maturity. To estimate the time development of the asset values, the stock prices are used whose correlations have a strong impact on the loss distribution, particularly on its tails. These correlations are non-stationary which also influences the tails. We account for the asset fluctuations by averaging over an ensemble of random matrices that models the truly existing set of measured correlation matrices. As a most welcome side effect, this approach drastically reduces the parameter dependence of the loss distribution, allowing us to obtain very explicit results which show quantitatively that the heavy tails prevail over diversification benefits even for small correlations. We calibrate our random matrix model with market data and show how it is capable of grasping different market situations. Furthermore, we present numerical simulations for concurrent portfolio risks, i.e., for the joint probability densities of losses for two portfolios. For the convenience of the reader, we give an introduction to the Wishart random matrix model.