Credit Risk

Return on a Individual Loan

Factors: interest payments, fees, credit risk premium, collateral, other requirements such as compensating balances and reserve requirements.

Return = inflow/outflow

k = (f + (BR + M ))/(1-[b(1-R)])

where: k: return on the loan

f: the loan origination fee

BR: the base blending rate

M: the credit risk premium

b: the compensating balance requirement

R : the reserve requirement imposed by the Fed

Example : BR=12%, M=2%, f =0.125%, b = 10%, R=10%

k = (f + (BR + M ))/(1-[b(1-R)]) = (0.00125 +(0.12 + 0.02)/(1-0.1*(1-0.1))

=15.52%

Expected return: E(r) = p(1+k), p is the probability of repayment of the loan.

Lending Rates and Rationing

At retail: Usually a simple accept/reject decision rather than adjustments to the rate.

Credit rationing.

If accepted, customers sorted by loan quantity.

At wholesale:

Use both quantity and pricing adjustments.

Measuring Credit Risk

Qualitative models: borrower specific factors are considered as well as market or systematic factors.

Specific factors include: reputation, leverage, volatility of earnings, covenants and collateral.

 Market specific factors include: business cycle and interest rate levels.

Credit scoring models

Linear probability models:

Example: Suppose the estimated linear probability model is Z = 1.1X1 + .6X2 + .5X3 + error, where X1 = 0.75 is the borrower's debt/equity ratio; X2 = 0.25 is the volatility of borrower earnings; and X3 = 0.15 is the borrower’s profit ratio.

a.What is the projected probability of repayment for the borrower?

Z = 1.1(.75) + .6(.25) + .5(.15) = 1.05%.

The expected probability of repayment is 1 0.0105 = 98.95%.

Logit models: overcome weakness of the linear probability models using a transformation (logistic function) that restricts the probabilities to the zero-one interval

Altman’s linear discriminant model:

Z=1.2X1+ 1.4X2 +3.3X3 + 0.6X4 + 1.0X5

Critical value of Z = 1.81.

X1 = Working capital/total assets.

X2 = Retained earnings/total assets.

X3 = EBIT/total assets.

X4 = Market value equity/ book value LT debt.

X5 = Sales/total assets.

Problems:

Only considers two extreme cases (default/no default).

Weights need not be stationary over time.

Ignores hard to quantify factors including business cycle effects.

Database of defaulted loans is not available to benchmark the model.

Mortality rate models

The probability of default is estimated from past data on defaults.

Marginal Mortality Rates:

MMR1 = (Value Grade B default in year 1)/ (Value Grade B outstanding yr.1)

MMR2 = (Value Grade B default in year 2)/ (Value Grade B outstanding yr.2)

RAROC models

RAROC = One year income on a loan/ Loan risk or capital at risk

Risk adjusted return on capital. This is one of the more widely used models.

Incorporates duration approach to estimate worst case loss in value of the loan:

L = -DL x L x (R/(1+R))

where R is an estimate of the worst change in credit risk premiums for the loan class over the past year.

RAROC = one-year income on loan/L

Example: A bank is planning to make a loan of $5,000,000 to a firm in the steel industry. It expects to charge an up-front fee of 1.5 percent and a servicing fee of 50 basis points. The loan has a maturity of 8 years and a duration of 7.5 years. The cost of funds (the RAROC benchmark) for the bank is 10 percent. Assume the bank has estimated the maximum change in the risk premium on the steel manufacturing sector to be approximately 4.2 percent, based on two years of historical data. The current market interest rate for loans in this sector is 12 percent.

a.Using the RAROC model, estimate whether the bank should make the loan?

RAROC = Fees and interest earned on loan/ Loan or capital risk

We ignore up-front fees in the calculation of the loan’s income.

Loan risk, or L= -DL*L*(R/(1 + R) = = -7.5 * $5m * (.042/1.12) = -$1,406,250

Expected interest= 0.12 x $5,000,000=$600,000

Servicing fees= 0.0050 x $5,000,000=$25,000

Less cost of funds= 0.10 x $5,000,000=-$500,000

Net interest and fee income=$125,000

RAROC = $125,000/1,406,250 = 8.89 percent. Since RAROC is lower than the cost of funds to the bank, the bank should not make the loan.

Credit Risk in a Loan (Asset) Portfolio

Migration analysis

Track credit rating changes within sector or pool of loans.

Rating transition matrix.

Risk grade: end of year

123Default

Risk grade: 1|.85.10.04.01

beginning2|.12.83.03.02

of year3|.03.13.80.04

Loan concentration model

Concentration limits

On loans to individual borrower

Concentration limit = Maximum loss  Loss rate

Where the Maximum loss expressed as percent of capital.

Applying portfolio theory to loan portfolios

Using loans to construct the efficient frontier

Minimum risk portfolio

Low risk
Low return.

Require

Expected return on loan(measured by all-in-spread)

 Loan risk

Correlation of loan default risks

KMV Portfolio Manager model

Ri = AISi - E(Li) = AISi - [EDFi × LGDi]

i = ULi = Di × LGDi

= [EDFi(1-EDFi)]½ × LGDi

ij = correlation between systematic return components of equity returns of

Loan volume-based models

Use commercial bank call reports to estimate national allocations

Shared national credit database that breaks commercial and industrial loan volume into 2-digit SIC codes

Use above as market benchmarks to measure loan allocation deviation

Loan loss ratio-based models

Estimate loan loss risk by SIC sector.

loan loss ratio in ithsector=  + i(total loan loss ratio)

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