Credit Default Swap Term Structure Research Articles

Ask BERT: How Regulatory Disclosure of Transition and Physical Climate Risks Affects the CDS Term Structure

Abstract We use BERT, an AI-based algorithm for language understanding, to quantify regulatory climate risk disclosures and analyze their impact on the term structure in the credit default swap (CDS) market. Risk disclosures can either increase or decrease CDS spreads, depending on whether the disclosure reveals new risks or reduces uncertainty. Training BERT to differentiate between transition and physical climate risks, we find that disclosing transition risks increases CDS spreads after the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, while disclosing physical risks decreases the spreads. In addition, we also find that the election of Trump had a negative impact on CDS spreads for firms exposed to transition risk. These impacts are consistent with theoretical predictions and economically and statistically significant.

The Cross-Section of Expected Returns on Defaultable Assets

This study examines the model regarding the relation between the expected returns of defaultable asset and default risk factors utilizing CDS (credit default swap). While the previous study estimates the expected returns of CDS using stock price and accounting data, this study introduces new estimation method using CDS term structure. Two factors incorporating market-wide distress risk and recovery risk are considered as the default risk factors. The results of analyzing the Korean corporate CDS market over the sample period from September 2009 to December 2016 are as follows. First, for the expected returns of CDS, there exists the negative risk premium related to market-wide distress risk covariance. Second, the finding of this negative risk premium is robust even after the market risk factors and liquidity factor are controlled for. Third, the negative premium related to recovery risk is observed but it is not statistically significant. These results imply that the investors consider the market-wide distress risk covariance as the main risk factor when pricing the Korean corporate CDSs and they require the reward taking risk as they invest CDS with the lower distress risk covariance. Therefore, our empirical results support the model that the covariance part between individual firm's distress risk and market-wide default risk changes is not diversifiable and thus the investors require the premium for this non-diversifiable risk.

Real Economic Shocks and Sovereign Credit Risk

AbstractWe provide new empirical evidence that U.S. expected growth and consumption volatility are closely related to the strong comovement in sovereign spreads. We rationalize these findings in an equilibrium model with recursive utility for credit default swap (CDS) spreads. The framework links a reduced-form default process with country-specific sensitivity to expected growth and macroeconomic uncertainty. Exploiting the high-frequency information in the CDS term structure across 38 countries, we estimate the model and find parameters consistent with preference for early resolution of uncertainty. Our results confirm the existence of time-varying risk premia in sovereign spreads as compensation for exposure to common U.S. macroeconomic risk.

Hawkes-diffusion process and the conditional probability of defaults in the Eurozone

This study examines market information embedded in the European sovereign CDS (credit default swap) market by analyzing the sovereign CDSs of 13 Eurozone countries from January 1, 2008, to February 29, 2012, which includes the recent Eurozone debt crisis period. We design the conditional probability of defaults for the CDS prices based on the Hawkes-diffusion process and obtain the theoretical prices of CDS indexes. To estimate the model parameters, we calibrate the model prices to empirical prices obtained from individual sovereign CDS term structure data. The estimated parameters clearly explain both cross-sectional and time-series data. Our empirical results show that the probability of a huge loss event sharply increased during the Eurozone debt crisis, indicating a contagion effect. Even countries with strong and stable economies, such as Germany and France, suffered from the contagion effect. We also find that the probability of small events is sensitive to the state of the economy, spiking several times due to the global financial crisis and the Greek government debt crisis.

The signalling properties of the shape of the credit default swap term structure

This paper studies the predictive power of the time-varying shape of the credit default swap (CDS) term structure to explain changes in future implied and excess implied volatility (implied volatility of the company over and above the market volatility) and therefore provide a leading sign of potential financial distress in a company. The shape of the CDS curve is captured by fitting the Nelson-Siegel model to the term structure and creating a new binary indicator (shape indicator) to distinguish between good and bad CDS curves. Applying the methodology to twenty US-traded companies from the financial and nonfinancial sectors, we find that the credit market is generally a leading indicator for movements in the volatility market during the subprime crisis. After confirming the strong link between CDSs and implied volatility markets (the average R-2 per sector between 36% and 63% is obtained using the Nelson-Siegel parameter and shape indicator), a partial F-test is executed to see if additional information is contained within the CDS markets over and above the volatility markets. For the period studied, this is the case for the majority of names, and it is particularly significant for Lehman Brothers.

Financial statement comparability and credit risk

Prior research shows that firms’ financial statement comparability improves the accuracy of market participants’ valuation judgments and thus may reduce firms’ costs of capital. Distinct from prior research focusing on the equity market, we develop measures of comparability relevant to debt market participants based on the within-industry variability of Moody’s adjustments to reported accounting numbers for the purposes of credit rating. We examine two sets of adjustments: (1) to the interest coverage ratio and (2) to non-recurring income items. We validate these comparability measures by providing evidence that greater comparability is associated with lower frequency and magnitude of split ratings by credit rating agencies. We predict and find that greater comparability is associated with (1) lower estimated bid-ask spreads for traded bonds, (2) lower credit spreads for both bonds and five-year credit default swaps, and (3) a steeper one- to five-year credit default swap term structure. Our results are consistent with financial statement comparability reducing debt market participants’ uncertainty about and pricing of firms’ credit risk.

The Linkage Between the Options and Credit Default Swap Markets During the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

AbstractThis study investigates the linkage between the options and credit default swap (CDS) markets around the subprime mortgage crisis period, using the unit recovery claim (URC). Through estimation of a well‐hedging strike price within a firm‐specific and time‐varying default corridor and consideration of the CDS term structure and firm‐specific recovery rate, modified URCs from the two markets are demonstrated to have a tighter linkage. The adjusted URCs show that, after the crisis, the effect of macroeconomic variable on deviations between the two markets increased and the options market's predictive power for the future movement of the CDS market was amplified. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark

The forecasting efficiency of the dynamic Nelson Siegel model on credit default swaps

This paper extends the Diebold–Li dynamic Nelson Siegel model to a new asset class, credit default swaps (CDSs). The similarities between the term structure of CDSs and the term structure of interest rates allow CDS curves to be modelled successfully using a parsimonious three factor model as first proposed by Nelson and Siegel (1987). CDSs and yield curves are modelled using the Diebold and Li (2006) dynamic interpretation of the Nelson Siegel model where the three factors are representative of the level, slope and curvature of the curve. Our results show that the CDS curve fits the data well and allows for the various shapes exhibited by the CDS data including steep, inverted and downward sloping curves. In addition to in sample fit of the modelled curve we explore the out of sample forecasting abilities of the model and using a univariate autoregressive model we forecast 1, 5 and 10 days ahead. Our results show that although the one day ahead forecast under performs the random walk, the 5 and 10 day forecast consistently outperforms the random walk for both yields and CDSs. This study reaffirms the ability of the Diebold–Li (2006) methodology to forecast yields and provides new evidence that this methodology is efficacious when applied to CDS spreads.

Financial Statement Comparability and Credit Risk

Prior research shows that firms' financial statement comparability improves the accuracy of market participants' valuation judgments and thus may reduce firms' costs of capital. Distinct from prior research focusing on the equity market, we develop measures of comparability relevant to debt market participants based on the within-industry variability of Moody's adjustments to reported accounting numbers for the purposes of credit rating. We examine two sets of adjustments: (1) to the interest coverage ratio and (2) for non-recurring income items. We validate these comparability measures by providing evidence that greater comparability is associated with lower frequency and magnitude of split ratings by credit rating agencies. We predict and find that greater comparability is associated with: (1) lower estimated bid-ask spreads for traded bonds, (2) lower credit spreads for both bonds and five-year credit default swaps, and (3) a steeper one- to five-year credit default swap term structure. Our results are consistent with financial statement comparability reducing debt market participants' uncertainty about and pricing of firms' credit risk.

Dynamic Interactions Between Interest-Rate and Credit Risk: Theory and Evidence on the Credit Default Swap Term Structure*

This paper examines the interaction between default risk and interest-rate risk in determining the term structure of credit default swap spreads at different industry sectors and credit-rating classes. The paper starts with a parsimonious three-factor interest-rate dynamic term structure and projects the credit spread at each industry sector and rating class to these interest-rate factors while also allowing the projection residual dynamics to depend on the level of the interest- rate factors. Estimation shows that credit risk exhibits intricate dynamic interactions with the interest-rate factors.

Determinants of Risk Premiums on Corporate Bonds

ECONOMISTS have long agreed that the rate of interest on a loan depends on the risks the lender incurs. But how lenders estimate these risks has been left largely to conjecture. This paper presents and tests a hypothesis about the determinants of risk premiums on corporate bonds. By risk premium is meant the difference between the market yield on a bond and the corresponding pure rate of interest. My hypothesis is as follows: (1) The average risk premium on a firm's bonds depends first on the risk that the firm will default on its bonds and second on their marketability. (2) The "risk of default" can be estimated by a function of three variables: the coefficient of variation of the firm's net income over the last