Credit default swaps and credit derivatives in general are one of the many specialized derivatives that are used for the purpose of hedging, speculation and arbitrage. The primary purpose of a credit derivative or the need behind the creation of such a product is to serve as a credit risk transfer mechanism. Credit risk is one of the four broadly classified types of risks (others being operational risk, market risk and liquidity risk) is the possibility of a loss resulting from a borrower’s failure to repay a loan or meet contractual obligations. Credit Default Swaps and Credit Derivatives gained popularity in the pre and during Global Financial Crisis in 2008. It has earned a bad reputation since then as it is perceived as one of the most dangerous financial derivatives. The decline in trading volume of emerging market sovereign CDS in the years since the 2008 global financial crisis, along with the steady rise in volume of emerging-market-bond ETFs, might have contributed to this increase in the relative efficiency of bond-price discovery. Credit-Default Swaps (CDS) were generally a better source of price discovery than spreads computed from bond prices. Credit-Default Swaps (CDS) tended to be a better measure of value compared to spreads computed from bonds, which may have been traded infrequently. However, since the COVID-19 crisis, the cash bond market appears to have made strong inroads as the better source for investors to compare relative value and risk.

This book provides a comprehensive overview for various segments of the global credit default swap (CDS) markets, touching upon how they were affected by the recent financial turmoil. The book uses empirical analysis on credit default swap markets, applying advanced econometric methodologies to the time series data. It covers not only well-studied sovereign credit default swap markets but also sector credit default swap indices (i.e., CDS index for the banking sector) and corporate credit default swap indices (i.e., Markit iTraxx Japan CDS index), which have not been fully examined by the previous literature. The book also investigates causality and co-movement among several credit default swap markets, or between CDS and other financial markets.

Timo Schläfer exploits the fact that differently-ranking debt instruments of the same issuer face identical default risk but different default-conditional recovery rates. He shows that this allows isolating recovery risk without any of the rigid assumptions employed by priors and implements his approach using credit default swap data.

Scientific Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, language: English, abstract: Warren Buffet, the world's richest man, once said that derivatives are financial "weapons of mass destruction." a term popularized by George W. Bush to describe nuclear arms. Indeed financial derivatives have a far greater impact on the market than their underlying due to their leverage effect. And the most popular and important credit derivatives nowadays are credit default swaps with a current notional value of over 60 trillion US dollars according to ISDA 1 (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) and 58 trillion US dollars according to BIS 2 (Bank for international settlement) respectively. That is more than the whole world's gross domestic product in the same year! 3 This paper examines the empirical relationship of CDS premium and credit spread by testing on their theoretical equivalence derived by Duffie (1999). It begins with an overview of CDS followed by the theoretical framework. The analysis starts with explanation of testing methods and description of data. After confirming the existence of the basis spread, this paper goes on to analyse the interactions of CDS spread and Bond spread using econometrics methods like Cointegration and Granger Causality tests. Also examined is the leadership of price discovery process between CDS market and traditional bond market.

Derivatives and credit derivatives have emerged as significant areas of interest in portfolio planning and risk management. In this book, Mark Anson examines the accounting and taxation implications of these instruments, including the new accounting rules for derivative instruments promulgated by the financial Accounting Standards in the United States, the Accounting Standards Board in Great Britain, and the International Accounting Standards Committee. Regulatory requirements for disclosing derivatives and tax considerations for derivative instruments are discussed (including TRA-97.) Additionally, the book reviews the regulatory accounting deadlines introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In times of distress when a country loses access to markets, there is evidence that credit default swap (CDS) spreads are a leading indicator for sovereign risk than the EMBI+ sub-index for the country. However, it is not easy to discern the variables that determine the level of CDS spreads in Emerging Markets (EM); traders only quote the CDS spreads and not the inputs that are required to calculate such spreads. This note provides some evidence from Argentina and Brazil that reveals inconsistency between theory and practice in pricing CDS spreads in EM. This note suggests an alternate methodology that links CTD (cheapest-to-deliver) bonds to recovery values assumed in CDS contracts. Furthermore, special features that pertain to CDS contracts (repo specialness, short squeezes by central banks) may also magnify the financial distress of a sovereign.

In reduced-form pricing models, it is usual to assume a fixed recovery rate to obtain the probability of default from credit default swap prices. An alternative credit risk measure is proposed here: the maximum recovery rate compatible with observed prices. The analysis of the recent debt crisis in Argentina using this methodology shows that the correlation between the maximum recovery rate and implied default probabilities turns negative in advance of the credit event realization. This empirical finding suggests that the maximum recovery rate can be used for constructing early warning indicators of financial distress.

Seit dem Ausbruch der jüngsten Finanzkrise sind Credit Default Swaps (CDS) ins Rampenlicht des akademischen und medialen Interesses gerückt und bilden seitdem den Gegenstand einer kontroversen Diskussion. Auf Europäischer Ebene werden zudem neue regulatorische Rahmenbedingungen eingeführt, die weitreichende Auswirkungen auf den CDS Markt haben werden. Die angesprochenen Kontroversen sowie die bevorstehenden regulatorischen Veränderungen machen den CDS Markt daher zu einem spannenden und wichtigen Forschungsgegenstand. Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich in vier Forschungsarbeiten mit den Implikationen des Einsatzes von CDS auf Marktteilnehmer und gibt im speziellen Antworten auf offene Fragen hinsichtlich der Anwendung von Kreditrisikomodellen, des Nutzens und der Risiken von CDS und den Auswirkungen neuer Regulierungen auf den CDS Markt. In Kapitel I werden die theoretischen Grundlagen zur Messung des Kreditrisikos gelegt, wobei der Fokus auf der praktischen Anwendung von Kreditrisikomodellen liegt. Hierbei untersuche ich die zwei gängigsten Kreditrisikomodelle: den firmenwertbasierten sowie den intensitätsbasierten Ansatz. Dabei gewinne ich wichtige Einblicke in den Einsatz von Kreditrisikomodellen im Zusammenhang mit der Nutzung von Kreditderivaten. In Kapitel II werden der Nutzen und die Risiken von CDS unter theoretischen und empirischen Gesichtspunkten einer Analyse unterzogen. Basierend auf der Analyse werden nachfolgend regulatorische Handlungsempfehlungen abgeleitet und diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse zeitigen eine Reihe von Risiken, die sich insbesondere in Krisenzeiten verstärken und daher effektivere zukünftige Regulierungen verlangen. Kapitel III konzentriert sich auf neue regulatorische Anforderungen im CDS Markt. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf der Ausgestaltung der Zentralen Gegenparteien und den Auswirkungen deren Einführung auf die Marktteilnehmer. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Zentrale Gegenparteien ein.