Levy Processes in Credit Risk

"Schoutens and Cariboni are two of a horrifyingly small number of authors who realize that something had to be done about credit modelling. Theirs won't be the final word on the subject but it's better than almost everything else that's been written."
—Paul Wilmott, wilmott.com

"The book casts great light on the intricacies of structured products valuation at a time when credit jumps play a key role in the understanding of credit events."
—Guido Bichisao, Head of Financial Engineering and Advisory Services, European Investment Bank

"Lévy processes represent a quantum leap over the continuous processes that have previously been used in credit modeling."
—Peter Carr, Head of Quantitative Research, Bloomberg LP and Director of Master Program in Mathematical Finance, NYC

"I recommend with pleasure the expert exposition of what real expertise has attained in an undoubtedly difficult yet critical arena of the financial markets. When such insight, intuition and intellectual perseverance offer leadership, it is foolhardy to look the other way. The book is must learn for all professionals."
—Professor Dilip Madan, University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business

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.