Question 1 [10 marks]:
Generating distributions for calculating Value-at-Risk (VaR)
In Chapter 12 of Hull, we learned that market risk is the risk related to the uncertainty of a financial institution’s earnings on its trading portfolio caused by changes, especially extreme changes, in market conditions such as asset prices, interest rates, market volatility and market liquidity. Value-at Risk (VaR) is used to assess (calculate) an FI’s exposure to market risk.
To calculate VaR, we first need to select the factors that drive the volatility of returns in the FI’s trading or investment portfolio. We can then use these risk factors to generate the forward distribution of the changes in the value of the portfolio. After we have generated the distribution, we can calculate the mean and the quantiles of this distribution to arrive at the portfolio VaR.
The change in the value of a portfolio is driven by changes in the market factors (or risk factors) that influence the price of each instrument in the portfolio.
The first part of Assignment Question 1 is to identify the various risk factors in a portfolio comprising:
USD/EUR forward contracts
USD/EUR call options
Shares in various listed companies
Bonds issued by government and corporate borrowers.
Having identified the risk factors that generate the volatility in the portfolio returns, the Analyst (‘you’) must then choose an appropriate methodology for deriving the forward distribution (of the changes in the value of the portfolio).
We learned in Chapters 13 and 14 of Hull that three alternatives are available.
These are the:
analytic variance-covariance approach (RiskMetrics);
historic (or back) simulation approach; and
Monte-Carlo simulation approach.
The second part of Assignment Question 1 is to:
describe (or explain) each of the three alternative approaches;
clearly highlighting the procedures – various steps – used in the three approaches to derive the forward distribution (of the changes in the value of the portfolio); and
compare the advantages (‘pros’) and disadvantages (‘cons’) of the different approaches.
It is not expected that you would use ‘elaborate’ mathematics (as in Hull) to answer this part of the question. Good, clear and concise explanation (or description) in plain English would likely earn you a better mark than including equations or formulas that you may not fully understand!
Question 2 [10 marks]:
Bank capital and risk management regulations devised by the Basel Committee Chapters 15 & 16 of Hull described various bank capital and risk management regulations devised by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision over the
past 25 years. A time-line of the development of the ‘BIS regulations” is as follows:
July 1988
Basel I (the Basel Accord) issued
December 1992
Basel I fully implemented
December 1996
Market risk amendment issued
December 1997
Market risk amendment implemented
June 2004
Basel II issued
December 2006
Basel II implemented
December 2007
Basel II advanced approaches implemented
July 2009
Revised securitisation and trading book rules issued
December 2009
Basel III consultative document issued
November 2010
G20 endorsed Basel III
December 2011
Trading book rules implemented
January 2013
Basel III implementation begins
January 2019
Proposed full implementation of Basel III.
For Assignment Question 2:
Describe (a) the requirements imposed on banks under the Basel Accord and (b) the key weaknesses of Basel I.
Explain the principal market risk amendments introduced in 1996 and why were these considered necessary
Describe the minimum capital requirements for credit risk introduced in Basel II and their calculation using the Standardised approach and the internal-ratings-based (IRB) approach.
Describe the ‘enhancements’ to the Basel II framework introduced in response to the 2007-2009 global financial crisis.
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