This book defines the various risks which banks face and relates them to products. Major types of risk and main instruments are surveyed as well as capital needs and returns. Credit risk is given particular priority and the book is aimed at bankers facing credit risk for the first time.

A comprehensive guide to credit risk management The Handbook of Credit Risk Management presents a comprehensive overview of the practice of credit risk management for a large institution. It is a guide for professionals and students wanting a deeper understanding of how to manage credit exposures. The Handbook provides a detailed roadmap for managing beyond the financial analysis of individual transactions and counterparties. Written in a straightforward and accessible style, the authors outline how to manage a portfolio of credit exposures--from origination and assessment of credit fundamentals to hedging and pricing. The Handbook is relevant for corporations, pension funds, endowments, asset managers, banks and insurance companies alike. Covers the four essential aspects of credit risk management: Origination, Credit Risk Assessment, Portfolio Management and Risk Transfer. Provides ample references to and examples of credit market services as a resource for those readers having credit risk responsibilities. Designed for busy professionals as well as finance, risk management and MBA students. As financial transactions grow more complex, proactive management of credit portfolios is no longer optional for an institution, but a matter of survival.

"This book is encountered within three major types of large-scale financial activity: commercial leading, fund management and investment banking trading activities. There businesses are increasingly founded upon quantitative approaches. This introductory text takes each of these activities in turn and describes the nature of the marketplace, how credit risk is measured and the quantitative tools employed to manage the exposure." -- BACK COVER.

This paper analyzes bank- and loan-specific characteristics that determine the amount of retained interest held by US banks in mortgage securitizations. Economic theory suggests that retaining an interest in securitization transactions should help to mitigate information asymmetry problems between the parties involved. Consistent with investor demand for a signal of (credit) quality of the securitized assets, I find that credit risk of the transferred mortgages is positively associated with the amount of retained interest held. The demand for such a signal seems to be lower for banks with an established reputation for securitization transactions. Consistent with the view of securitization as a sophisticated tool to manage risk from loan origination, more sophisticated banks seem to hold more retained interest. It also appears that retained interest is negatively associated with credit risk exposure from other assets. These findings suggest that retained interest in securitization transactions serves as a mechanism to mitigate information asymmetry problems as well as a means to manage a bank's risk profile.

Securitization--once a fairly straightforward means of offering collateral for investment--has mushroomed into a massively complex area of financial practice. The central role occupied by such risk-distributing products as collateral debt obligations (CDOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), collateral loan obligations (CLOs), and credit derivatives has given rise to one of the most crucial inquiries of our era: Is the financial collapse that threatens the world financial system due merely to rogue traders? Or is there something in the derivative idea itself that spells inevitable disaster? Most important, can we isolate the truly productive aspects of securitization and learn to recognise pitfalls in advance? As always in such ideational minefields, it is the legal practitioners who are expected to provide guidance to distressed investors and asset dealers. Hence this vital new book. Written from a distinctly practical point of view by Jan Job de Vries Robb� with contributions from Paul Ali and Tim Coyne--all three leading authorities with extensive experience as counsel both in-house and in private practice, in addition to sterling academic credentials--the book sheds clear light on every aspect of today's securitization techniques, including welcome guidance on the following: ; keeping track of exposure to the CDO market; and evaluating such emerging asset classes as commodity risk, microfinance, and project finance risk. In the course of the analysis the book proceeds from the relevant framework and guiding legal principles, through key risks and building blocks in securitization transactions, to the various product classes and sub-classes and their differences and common denominators. Non-credit risk and niche products (such as fund and insurance securitization) are also covered. The final chapters are devoted to the applicable rules as laid down in Basel II and International Financial Reporting Standards.