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Central counterparty (CCP) default waterfalls act as the last lines of defense in over-the-counter markets by managing and allocating resources to cover payment defaults. This article examines the impact of variations in waterfall design on financial system losses in the presence of payment network dependencies and frictions in the cleared and noncleared portion of the system. Through the development of a structural model, we draw several theoretical conclusions about the effectiveness of CCP default waterfalls under severe payment stress. These findings are empirically quantified by testing the model using supervisory data for the U.S. credit default swap market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In matching models, pairwise-stable outcomes do not generally exist without substantial restrictions on both preferences and the topology of the network of contracts. We address the foundations of matching markets by developing a matching model with a continuum of agents that allows for arbitrary preferences and network structures. We show that pairwise-stable outcomes are guaranteed to exist. When agents can interact with multiple other counterparties, pairwise stability is too weak of a solution concept, and we argue that a refinement of it called tree stability is the most appropriate solution concept in this setting. Our main results show that tree-stable outcomes exist for arbitrary preferences and network topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the factors influencing the relocation of EUR-denominated clearing services back to EU central counterparties (CCPs) by the European Commission. It adopts a novel security-centred approach to analyse this decision within the context of a fragmented geopolitical arena marked by uneven development in financial centres. Using the theory of Geopolitical Economy (GPE), this paper examines the implications and risks associated with financial dependencies and the pursuit of autonomy in the global financial landscape. It specifically addresses the risks posed by the dominance of UK CCPs, such as London Clearing House (LCH), in EUR-denominated clearing services and emphasises the EU’s need to bolster its financial autonomy and stability, mitigating these intricate risks in this process. Through this analysis, the paper contributes to the existing literature by offering a novel understanding of the geopolitical-economic factors influencing regulatory actions within financial services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a noncooperative game of quantity competition among firms in an oligopoly market under general demand and cost functions. Each firm's optimal response to the strategies of other firms is assessed by the magnitude and sign of its conjectural variation, expressing the firm's expectation regarding the counterparty's supply quantity change in response to the firm's unit change in its supply quantity. A game of n firms with the sum of conjectural variations (SCV) regarding all counterparties as the generalized response characteristic is studied. The existence of a bifurcation of the players' response is revealed; a bifurcation is a strategy profile of the game in which both positive and negative responses are possible with an infinite-magnitude SCV value. Methods are developed for calculating the SCV value under different types of inverse demand functions (linear and power) and cost functions (linear, power, and quadratic), and the impact of these characteristics of firms on the bifurcation state is comparatively analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A blockchain replaces central counterparties with time-consuming consensus protocols to record the transfer of ownership. This settlement latency slows cross-exchange trading, exposing arbitrageurs to price risk. Off-chain settlement, instead, exposes arbitrageurs to costly default risk. We show with Bitcoin network and order book data that cross-exchange price differences coincide with periods of high settlement latency, asset flows chase arbitrage opportunities, and price differences across exchanges with low default risk are smaller. Blockchain-based trading thus faces a dilemma: Reliable consensus protocols require time-consuming settlement latency, leading to arbitrage limits. Circumventing such arbitrage costs is possible only by reinstalling trusted intermediation, which mitigates default risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Informacion Comercial Espanola Revista de Economia is the property of S.G.E.E.I.P.C., Secretaria de Estado de Comercio, Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Law & International Relations / Relações Internacionais no Mundo is the property of Relacoes Internacionais no Mundo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigate how market participants price and manage counterparty credit risk using confidential trade repository data on single-name credit default swap (CDS) transactions. We find that counterparty risk has a modest impact on the pricing of CDS contracts but a large impact on the choice of counterparties. For contracts ineligible for central clearing, we show that market participants are significantly less likely to trade with counterparties whose credit risk is highly correlated with the credit risk of the reference entities and with counterparties whose credit quality is low. For clearable contracts, we find that nondealers are more likely to clear during a crisis and less likely to clear when the reference entity is a large U.S. dealer or a sovereign. This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance. Supplemental Material: The internet appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4870. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragmenting clearing across multiple central counterparties (CCPs) is costly because global dealers cannot net positions across CCPs. They have to collateralize both the short position in one CCP and an offsetting long position in another CCP. This, coupled with a structural net order imbalance across CCPs, can cause prices to persistently differ across them ("the CCP basis"). Tests based on unique CCP data for interest-rate derivatives (IRDs) yield broad empirical support for this intuition and suggest that the clearing friction costs sellers clearing in LCH, the largest European CCP for IRDs, $80 million daily. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Funding: This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). A. Menkveld gratefully acknowledges the support of NWO Vici grant. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4867. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit risk plays a key role in financial modeling, and financial institutions are required to incorporate it in their pricing, as well as in capital requirement calculations. A common manner to extract credit worthiness information for existing and potential counterparties is based on the Credit Default Swap (CDS) market. Nonetheless, not all counterparties of a financial institution have (liquid) CDSs traded in the market. In this case, financial institutions shall employ a proxy methodology to estimate the default probabilities of these counterparties. Starting from the intersection methodology for credit curves, in this article we investigate whether it is possible to construct proxy credit curves from CDS quotes by means of (weighted) Wasserstein barycenters. We show how, under simple and common assumptions, this revised methodology leads to elementary and intuitive formulae to calculate distances between CDS-implied default probability distributions. Further, we illustrate how to use this information to construct proxy CDS quotes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When seeking to trade in over-the-counter markets, institutional investors typically restrict both the number of potential counterparties they contact and the information they disclose (e.g., by requesting two-sided rather than one-sided quotes). We rationalize these important facts in a model featuring endogenous front-running. Although an additional contact intensifies competition and aids in finding a natural counterparty, it also intensifies information leakage—which can be costly if it helps a losing dealer to front-run. We also address information design: the client optimally provides no information about her trading direction when requesting quotes. We conclude with implications for market design and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies exchange-traded funds' (ETFs) price impact in the most ETF-dominated asset classes: volatility (VIX) and commodities. I propose a new way to measure ETF-related price distortions based on the specifics of futures contracts. This allows me to isolate a component in VIX futures prices that is strongly related to the rebalancing of ETFs. I derive a novel decomposition of ETF trading demand into leverage rebalancing, calendar rebalancing, and flow rebalancing, and show that trading against ETFs is risky. Leverage rebalancing has the largest effects on the ETF-related price component. This rebalancing amplifies price changes and exposes ETF counterparties to variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the impact of monetary policy on cross-border bank flows for a large sample of countries over two decades. We find evidence in favor of a cross-border risk-taking channel, as the monetary policy stance of source countries is an important determinant of cross-border bank flows. A relatively tighter monetary policy in source countries prompts banks to reallocate their lending toward safer foreign counterparties. The cross-border reallocation of credit is more pronounced for source countries with lower-capitalized banks. Also, the reallocation is directed toward foreign borrowers in relatively safer destinations, such as advanced economies or economies with investment-grade sovereign ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

964 The current EU regulatory regime of Central Counterparties (CCPs) falls short of addressing adequately the potential misalignment of incentives of CCPs' shareholders on the one hand and clearing members on the other hand.Thus, according to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), while clearing members contribute substantially to the default waterfall of a CCP, they do not enjoy substantial governance rights: they merely participate in the risk committee of the CCP, whose role is only advisory.By contrast, although shareholders are vested with substantial governance rights, such as the right to appoint the members of the board which sets the CCP's risk profile, they do not bear final losses first, as in ordinary companies: the shareholders' contribution to a CCP's default waterfall is limited and, in case the CCP enters resolution, they only bear losses, in principle, after the clearing members.It is however clear that when the owners of a firm are not the ones bearing the risks first, the firm may be inclined to excessive risk-taking. The objective of this article is therefore to discuss a number of ways to improve the corporate governance of CCPs, in particular the incentive setting for shareholders. 965 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting principles state that the net presentation of offsetting assets and liabilities on the balance sheet is improper unless the right of setoff exists. Derivatives dealers and their frequent counterparties enter into master netting agreements (MNAs) that provide a limited right of setoff that is insufficient (sufficient) for net presentation under IFRS (US GAAP). To remedy this presentation difference, as of 2013, IFRS and US GAAP require dealers to disclose the gross, reported, and net amounts of derivatives assets and liabilities that they present net or present gross but cover under enforceable MNAs. We first study real effects of these mandatory disclosures on dealers' financial leverage. We posit that dealers prefer market participants to view their leverage as lower. Because the 2013 requirements provide new information for IFRS dealers but not for US GAAP dealers, we hypothesize and show that the requirements induce IFRS dealers to reduce their derivatives leverage by eliminating unnecessary offsetting derivatives and using MNAs more effectively. We hypothesize and show that the requirements have substantially weaker real effects for US GAAP dealers. We then study the usefulness of the disclosures to market participants. Because the right of setoff provided by MNAs does not eliminate all significant risks of the covered derivatives, we hypothesize and provide evidence that dealers' net derivatives leverage and disclosure quality under the 2013 requirements inform market participants about dealers' credit risk uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While numerous crypto exchanges have failed, their innovative clearing models may hold value for the traditional central clearing space. After describing the representative model of traditional clearing and with its strengths and challenges, this paper reviews the external pressures that often dissuade central counterparties (CCPs) from deviating from this archetype. The paper reviews the design innovations in post-trade services in crypto markets and critically examines the potential for implementing certain facets of such alternate models in traditional clearing contexts, taking a view of their promises as well as risks. The paper strongly advocates for a contingency-based approach to CCP design and discusses specific contexts where alternate clearing models could prove valuable for the markets. This journey must preserve the balance of efficiency and safety, anticipation and prudence, in order to maintain the resilience of CCPs while redesigning crucial procedures for improved market services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that nineteenth century central banks could use credit limits for discount loans as a means to enforce supervisory standards long before they had any formal regulatory powers. Drawing on novel microdata from the Austro–Hungarian Bank's archives, we document that credit limits were continuously monitored and that their size was contingent on counterparties' liquidity and capital position. Counterparties had an economic motive to abide by informal prudential 'rules of the game': higher credit limits enabled counterparties to streamline their day‐to‐day liquidity management. We exploit the heterogeneous exposure of counterparties to an exogenous liquidity shock to evidence that the Bank relaxed credit limits during crises to fulfil its role as a lender of last resort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study is to understand a family firm's choice of related-party transaction (RPT) types and analyze their value impacts to separate the abusive from benign RPTs. Design/methodology/approach: It uses a 10-year panel of BSE-listed 378 family (and 200 non-family) firms. The fixed effects, logit and difference-in-difference (DID) models help examine value effects, propensity and persistence of harmful RPTs. Findings: Loans/guarantees (irrespective of counterparties) destroy firm value. Capital asset RPTs decrease the firm value but enhance value when undertaken with holding parties. Operating RPTs increase firm value and profitability. They improve asset utilization and reduce discretionary expenses (especially when made with controlled entities). Family firms have larger loans/guarantees and capital asset volumes but have smaller operating RPTs than non-family firms. They are less likely to undertake loans/guarantees (and even operating RPTs) and more capital RPTs vis-à-vis non-family firms. Family firms persist with dubious loans/guarantees but hold back beneficial operating RPTs, despite RPTs being in investor cross-hairs amid the Satyam scam. Research limitations/implications: Rent extractability and counterparty incentives supplement each other. (1) The higher extractability of related-party loans and guarantees (RPLGs) dominates the lower extraction incentives of controlled parties. (2) Holding parties' bringing assets, providing a growth engine and adding value dominate their higher extraction incentives (3) The big gains to the operational efficiency come from operating RPTs with controlled parties, generally operating companies in the family house. (4) Dubious RPTs seem more integral to family firms' choices than non-family firms. (5) Counterparty incentives behind the divergent use of RPTs deserve more research attention. Future studies can give more attention to how family characteristics affect divergent motives behind RPTs. Practical implications: First, the study does not single out family firms for dubious use of all RPTs. Second, investors, auditors or creditors must pay close attention to RPLGs as a special expropriation mechanism. Third, operating RPTs (and capital RPTs with holding parties) benefit family firms. However, solid procedural safeguards are necessary. Overall, results may help clarify the dilemma Indian regulators face in balancing the abusive and business sides of RPTs. Originality/value: The study fills the gap by arguing why some RPTs may be dubious or benign and then shows how RPTs' misuse depends on counterparty types. It shows operating RPTs enhance operating efficiencies on several dimensions and that benefits may vary with counterparty types. It also presents the first evidence that family firms favor dubious RPTs more and efficient RPTs less than non-family firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the global financial crisis, the measurement of counterparty credit risk has become an essential part of the Basel III accord with credit value adjustment being one of the most prominent components of this concept. In this study, we extend the Merton structural credit risk model for counterparty credit risk calculation in the context of calculating the credit value adjustment mainly by estimating the probability of default. We improve the Merton model in a variance-convoluted-gamma environment to include default dependence between counterparties through a linear factor decomposition framework. This allows one to tackle dependence through a systematic common component. Our set-up allows for easier, faster and more accurate fitting for the credit spread. Results confirm that use of the variance-gamma-convolution clearly solves the vanishing credit spread problem for short time-to-maturity or low leverage cases compared to a Brownian motion environment and its modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2021, the default of Archegos, a US family office, led to large losses for some global banks. Archegos was able to accumulate large exposures to, and leverage on, equities by entering into derivatives transactions with bank counterparties. When the price of the underlying stocks started to decline, the firm was unable to meet variation margins, resulting in the liquidation of the stocks by the counterparty banks. In this paper, European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) data is used to analyse Archegos' positions and show that it is possible to track the steep increase in concentrated exposures that the family office undertook in February and March 2021. The findings show how regulatory data collected under EMIR can be used to monitor leverage and concentration risk in derivatives markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The credit default swap (CDS) market plays an important role for financial institutions. This is not only for their trading activities, but also as it provides a source of information to extract default probabilities to be used for (counterparty) credit risk purposes, as for instance in credit valuation adjustment calculations. Nonetheless, the number of entities for which liquid single-name CDSs are traded is of the order of a few thousands. This requires financial institutions to employ proxy methodologies to estimate the credit risk they face when trading with counterparties for which no (liquid) CDSs are available in the market. In this paper, we propose and compare different approaches to take into account counterparty-specific information in terms of rating, region, sector, etc. at cross-sectional level to strip risk-neutral default probabilities from CDSs. This is achieved by taking into account the intrinsic probabilistic information characterizing each CDS by means of suitably-defined Wasserstein distances and barycenters. The results suggest that default probabilities are likely to be overestimated if the construction of the proxy credit curves overlooks the probability structure underlying the CDS market, potentially resulting in a too conservative counterparty credit risk pricing framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early 2022, a UK CCP cancelled some $4 billion of transactions in the war-affected nickel market, triggering outrage from market participants that were in the money. The 'nickel debacle' illustrates that CCP risk management and loss absorption mechanisms may result in value redistribution among stakeholders. With CCP stakeholders located in multiple jurisdictions, crisis management decisions from a single-jurisdiction CCP supervisor may not pursue multi-jurisdictional financial stability or a fair balance of stakeholder interests across jurisdictions. Although the case for centralised supervision of EU CCPs thus appears strong, national concerns have persistently blocked increased centralisation. This article re-examines decentralised EU CCP supervision in light of the much-debated post-Brexit centralised EU supervisory regime for systemically important third country CCPs. Two new arguments emerge from this juxtaposition, revealing a dichotomy between the named supervisory regimes that appears hard to justify. First, a decentralised supervisory regime for EU CCPs is difficult to logically square with the policy arguments underpinning the post-Brexit EU supervisory system for systemically important third country CCPs. Secondly, the controversial location policy for 'too systemically important' third country CCPs could be more justifiable if the EU were to adopt centralised EU supervision of systemically important EU CCPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management & Organization Review is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In line with international policy initiatives after the 2008 financial crisis, the EU co-legislators have sought to mitigate the potential destructive effects of derivative contracts through a host of far-reaching legislative interventions (e.g. mandatory usage of central counterparties (CCPs)). To determine the scope of application of these legislative initiatives, the definition of derivatives is of pivotal importance. Although a strand in legal scholarship has aimed to map the conceptual properties of derivatives, the derivatives definitions that have been conceived by the EU co-legislators to demarcate the scope of recent legislative interventions have received virtually no attention. This article seeks to fill this gap. Through a combination of conceptual and regulatory analysis, the article develops two new arguments. First, it argues that derivatives definitions in EU law do not identify any distinctive conceptual properties of derivatives and, instead, only provide a circular description of what derivatives may be. Secondly, it submits that this conceptually unsatisfactory approach is symptomatic for a more fundamental deficit in the conceptual underpinnings of derivatives. By exploring the relation between the derivatives definitions in EU law and the conceptual properties of derivatives, this article seeks to uncover some of the conceptual impurities in the premises on which the major overhaul of EU derivatives legislation has been built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate that margin requirements of central counterparties show a significantly different behavior when calculated with a portfoliowise treatment instead of taking the weighted sum of the margin requirements of the components without accounting for their correlation structures. This is shown via simulating trajectories of a joint stochastic volatility–stochastic correlation model. Results indicate that an unnecessarily large overmargin requirement is set by regulators when the applied risk measure is not calculated via a portfoliowise treatment. Finally, accounting for the correlation structure of the assets during the margining process would not lead to an overly prudent method, nor would it cause greater procyclicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We build a theory of financial intermediation based on the premise that some investors are better able to figure out the trade motives of their counterparties in bilateral meetings—screening experts. We solve for the equilibrium market structure and study how information asymmetries stemming from heterogeneity in screening expertise shape up the core–periphery trade structure. In particular, the core of the market is populated by screening experts: they have the largest share of trade volume, they are actively engaged in middleman activity, and trade with the most counterparties. Using transaction-level micro-data and information disclosure requirements, we provide extensive evidence consistent only with our theory of financial intermediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 2008 financial crisis, international policy reforms were adopted on various aspects of derivatives markets, highlighting the need for precise and consistent rules. We examine the making of international rules concerning the resilience, recovery and resolution of central counterparties (CCPs), which form acritical global financial infrastructure. We argue that regulators played an important role in setting relatively precise and consistent international standards on CCPs over time. Facing common challenges, such as market fragmentation and interlinkages between issues, fostered a problem-solving approach in transgovernmental networks. We also identify the policy coordination tools used by regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the systemic impact of central clearing based on a financial network model in which edge weights represent the sensitivities of one participant's failure to its counterparties' default likelihood. The reduced‐form model specifies the mechanism of systemic risk concentration under central clearing in that a central counterparty redistributes the probability mass of the systemic failure from the center of the distribution into its tail. Numerical illustrations shed light on implications for regulating the adverse dependence between risk concentration under central clearing and the resiliency of the financial system via proper margin schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a framework for designing collateral requirements in a centrally cleared market. Clearing members post collateral—initial margins and default funds—to increase their pledgeable income, thereby committing to risk management. The two types of collateral, however, are not perfect substitutes. By achieving loss mutualization, default funds are economically more efficient than initial margins in aligning members' incentives for risk management ex ante. The optimal mix of collateral resources balances the efficiency in providing incentives with their relative opportunity costs. Our model predicts increased use of initial margins under stringent capital requirements and of default funds under distressed market scenarios. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that the fundamental legal structure of a well-written financial contract follows a state-transition logic that can be formalized mathematically as a finite-state machine (specifically, a deterministic finite automaton or DFA). The automaton defines the states that a financial relationship can be in, such as "default," "delinquency," "performing," etc., and it defines an "alphabet" of events that can trigger state transitions, such as "payment arrives," "due date passes," etc. The core of a contract describes the rules by which different sequences of events trigger particular sequences of state transitions in the relationship between the counterparties. By conceptualizing and representing the legal structure of a contract in this way, we expose it to a range of powerful tools and results from the theory of computation. These allow, for example, automated reasoning to determine whether a contract is internally coherent and whether it is complete relative to a particular event alphabet. We illustrate the process by representing a simple loan agreement as an automaton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to assess the impact of the EU ETS on the profitability and the excess rate of return (ERR), which is the difference between profitability and the cost of capital. The study was conducted between 2008 and 2016 on a sample of 91 very large companies covered by the EU ETS. Models for panel data were used for the analysis. No statistically significant relationship between emission allowances and return on equity was found. However, a statistically significant relationship between emission allowances and ERR was detected. This could mean that companies were able to pass on the cost of emission allowances to their counterparties. However, greenhouse gas emissions entail greater exposure to the price risk of emission allowances, which the companies were unable to diversify, resulting in an increase in the cost of equity. Moreover, the study shows that the effect of emission allowances on the value of companies may not be symmetrical, as the variable under study was only statistically significant when it took on positive values (GHG emissions were higher than the allocation). As proven, an analysis of the excess returns can help to explain some of the inconsistencies and contribute to a better understanding of the impact of the EU ETS on the value of companies. The research carried out helps to answer the question of who bears the costs of reducing greenhouse gases and is it true that there are no costs for companies and therefore the introduction of the EU ETS has not affected their value. The conclusions of this study may be of interest to policymakers, investors but also to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the spatial patterns of interurban trade in capital market services by analysing 16,324 trade links involving advisers and clients in the Visegrád Four plus Austria and their counter-parties worldwide between 2000 and 2014. We aim to address a gap in the research on financial centres and interurban trade by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between the complexity of services and the size of market areas across which they are traded. We utilise recent contributions to Central Place Theory (CPT), which provide us with suitably general models of interurban trade applicable to financial services. The key proposition of CPT in this respect is that more complex services are traded across larger market areas, thus translating into a further spatial reach of service centres. Given that these propositions are derived at a very general level, we rely on global city theory for explaining the underlying causal mechanisms in the context of capital market services. Our analysis examines the geography of adviser–client trade links to investigate how spatial patterns of interurban trade in capital market services are shaped by the characteristics of the services traded. We uncover evidence that more complex and larger transactions are associated with higher distance between clients and financial services providers. This in turn means that more complex services are traded across larger market areas. While clients in Central and Eastern Europe can generally find suitable providers for less complex capital market services locally, they often rely on financial services providers globally for the most complex transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit default swaps (CDS) are the most common type of credit derivative. This paper provides a brief history of the CDS market and discusses its main characteristics. After describing the basic mechanics of a CDS, I present a simple valuation framework that focuses on the relationship between conditions in the cash and CDS markets as well as an approach to mark to market existing CDS positions. The discussion highlights how the 2008 global financial crisis helped shape current practices and conventions in the CDS market, including the widespread adoption of standardized coupons and upfront premiums and the increased reliance on centralized counterparties. I also address CDS indexes--focusing on their growing role as key indicators of investors' attitudes toward credit risk--and briefly examine their behavior during periods of acute financial or economic dislocations, including those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the basket CDS pricing with two defaultable counterparties based on the reduced-form model. The default jump intensities of the reference firms and counterparties are all assumed to follow the mean-reverting constant elasticity of variance (CEV) processes. Taking the Vasicek process which is a special case of CEV process as an example, the approximate analytic solutions of the joint survival probability density, the probability densities of the first default and the first two defaults can be solved by using PDE method. In addition, we also extend the Vasciek process to the Vasciek process with cojumps and obtain the approximate closed-form solutions of the relevant default probability densities. Then with the expressions of the probability densities, we can get the formula of the basket CDS price with two defaultable counterparties. In the numerical analysis, we do sensitivity analysis and compare the basket CDS prices under our model with that with only one defaultable counterparty. The numerical results show that our model can be applied into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period 1549-1551 is focused on the renewal of the negotiations for the transfer of Transylvania to Austria. The negotiations were mediated by George Martinuzzi (better known as Brother George). Martinuzzi suggested to Ferdinand Habsburg occupying militarily Transylvania, fortifying its castles, and arming powerful troops in order to be ready to overcome the Ottoman reaction. Queen Isabella Jagello did not welcome her lieutenant's plan to cede the kingdom to the Romans' king; therefore, she accused him of infidelity towards her son John Sigismund, as well as of having used the money of the Treasury for his own purposes. The Queen even turned to Sultan Süleyman I, who took her defense. Upon learning of the pact signed by Martinuzzi and Ferdinand, Süleyman was peremptory in ordering the governor of Buda, Kasim Pasha, to capture the traitorous friar, dead or alive; meanwhile, Martinuzzi was deprived of his officis. Then, both the Queen and Martinuzzi got ready for war. Twice Martinuzzi besieged the Queen's palace in Alba Iulia; twice the friar and the Queen were reconciled. The Buda pasha, called by the Queen in support of herself, was rejected by Martinuzzi's troops, who also blocked the invasion of Transylvania by the armies of both voivodes of Moldavia and Wallachia. An acceleration was therefore given to negotiations for Transylvania's dedication to Austria. Hence, Ferdinand Habsburg sent to Transylvania the army of General Giovanni Battista Castaldo. Aware of the renewed power of the friar, who was reinstated in his posts, as well as of the military strength of the Habsburgs, Queen Isabella finally accepted the agreement with Ferdinand, who compelled the counterparties to conclude the negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once seen as the solution to the systemic risk of over-the-counter derivatives, central counterparties (CCPs) have become a source of concern for the financial stability of the European Union (EU). Distress of a single CCP might be transferred to clearing members and others CCPs, thereby endangering EU monetary and fiscal stability. However, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) has left fiscal responsibility as well as day-to-day supervision of EU-based CCPs (EU-CCPs) at the national level, albeit cross-border colleges of authorities can overturn key decisions of national supervisors. The Commission concluded that these supervisory arrangements needed to be reformed because they hamper the development of a single coherent EU approach to CCP supervision. Although the Commission had proposed to centralise EU-CCP supervision in the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the final 2019 CCP Supervision Regulation seeks to improve EMIR's ineffective collegial framework by establishing an internal CCP Supervisory Committee within ESMA. Nevertheless, the continuing lack of loss mutualisation would keep on hindering the development of a single approach to EU-CCP supervision. Moreover, the new regulation adds another layer of complexity to the EMIR framework and clashes with the European monetary constitution. If an agreement on loss mutualisation was reached, EU-CCP supervision should be centralised in two EU bodies along objective lines: while the European Central Bank should be tasked with EU-CCP prudential supervision, ESMA should be responsible for EU-CCP conduct of business supervision. This framework would improve EU-CCP supervision and fit in with the current EU governance at once. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central counterparties (CCPs) function as financial infrastructures for capital markets in derivatives. They are designed to reduce aggregate counterparty credit risk. Although CCPs have existed for well over a century, they have only gained prominence after the Great Financial Crisis compelled the G20 to implement the mandatory clearing policy to make over‐the‐counter derivative transactions safer. This has led to a boom in CCP literature, 60% of which has been published in the last 5 years. This article provides a review of the literature on derivative CCPs focusing on some fundamental topics regarding the raison d'être, resilience, and governance of the CCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An agent-based model is proposed, constructing an evolutionary banking system, where interbank loans and investment strategies are, respectively, determined by liquidity shortage and utility maximization. The causes of systemic risk are then explored based on the evolutionary banking system, which is calibrated by a sample from China. The regulatory interventions indicate the positive effects of increased investment assets, while the negative but inappreciable effects of increased interbank counterparties on contagion risks decrease. This observation hints at the possibility of promoting systemic stability by incentivizing more diversifications in investment assets instead of interbank counterparties. The results also demonstrate the advantages of prudential liquidity requirements, interbank liquidity facilities, and monetary policies from the central bank in promoting banking system stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Late medieval Englishmen provided for their wellbeing in the hereafter by purchasing intercession for their souls. They traded valuable landed endowments for the promise of posthumous Masses and prayers whose daily observance contractual counterparties agreed to underwrite for decades, centuries, even eternally. Intercessory foundations so contracted were called chantries. Chantry contracts constituted trades with the dead in the sense that the promisees were deceased when the promisors were supposed to perform. I study the special problems that chantry contract promisees faced in enforcing their rights from the grave and analyze the devices they used for that purpose. Chantry founders wary of their fates in the afterlife showed equal concern for the challenges their contracts would encounter in this life long after they were gone. Founders met those challenges by leveraging the economics of incentives to develop a strategy of chantry contract self-enforcement: profit the living, present and future, for monitoring the contractual performance of promisors and promisors' agents, and for punishing them should they breach. Chantry founders' strategy was successful, enabling trade with the dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]