This book is an introductory guide to using Lévy processes for credit risk modelling. It covers all types of credit derivatives: from the single name vanillas such as Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) right through to structured credit risk products such as Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurances (CPPIs) and Constant Proportion Debt Obligations (CPDOs) as well as new advanced rating models for Asset Backed Securities (ABSs).
Jumps and extreme events are crucial stylized features, essential in the modelling of the very volatile credit markets - the recent turmoil in the credit markets has once again illustrated the need for more refined models.
Readers will learn how the classical models (driven by Brownian motions and Black-Scholes settings) can be significantly improved by using the more flexible class of Lévy processes. By doing this, extreme event and jumps can be introduced into the models to give more reliable pricing and a better assessment of the risks.
The book brings in high-tech financial engineering models for the detailed modelling of credit risk instruments, setting up the theoretical framework behind the application of Lévy Processes to Credit Risk Modelling before moving on to the practical implementation. Complex credit derivatives structures such as CDOs, ABSs, CPPIs, CPDOs are analysed and illustrated with market data.
Wim Schoutens (Leuven, Belgium) is a research professor in financial engineering in the Department of Mathematics at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He has extensive practical experience of model implementation and is well known for his consulting work in the banking industry. Wim is the author of
Lévy Processes in Finance and co-editor of
Exotic Option Pricing and Advanced Lévy Models both published by Wiley. He teaches at 7city Learning and London Financial Studies. He is Managing Editor of the
International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Finance and Associate Editor of
Mathematical Finance and
Review of Derivatives Research.
Jessica Cariboni (Ispra, Italy) has a PhD in applied statistics from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She was a junior quantitative analyst at Nextra Investment Management. She is currently a functionary of the European Commission and researcher at the European Commission DG-Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy. She is also co-author of the book Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer published by Wiley.
