Microcredit is part of a global trend of financial inclusion that brings banking services, especially small loans, to the world's poor. In this book, Caroline Schuster explores Paraguayan solidarity lending as a window into the tensions between social development and global finance. Social Collateral tracks collective debt across the commercial society and smuggling economies at the Paraguayan border by examining group loans made to women by nonprofit development programs. These highly regulated loans are secured through mutual support and peer pressure - social collateral - rather than through physical collateral. This story of social collateral necessarily includes an interwoven account about the feminization of solidarity lending. At its core is an economy of gender - from pink - collar financial work, to men's committees, to women smugglers. At stake are interdependencies that bind borrowers and lenders, financial technologies, and Paraguayan development in ways that structure both global inequality and global opportunity.

The single most important topic in finance today is the art and science of credit risk management. Growing dissatisfaction with traditional credit risk measurement methods has combined with regulations imposed by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in 1993 to send numerous financial institutions in search of alternative "internal model" approaches to measuring the credit risk of a loan or portfolio of loans. This has led to a raging debate over whether internal models can replace regulatory models, and which areas of credit risk measurement and management are most amenable to internal models. Much of this highly technical debate, however, has been inaccessible to the interested practitioner, student, economist, or regulator-until now.
In Credit Risk Measurement: New Approaches to Value at Risk and Other Paradigms, Anthony Saunders invites a wider audience into the debate. Simplifying many of the technical details and analytics surrounding internal models, he concentrates on their underlying economics and economic intuition. Professor Saunders examines the approaches of these new models to the evaluation of individual borrower credit risk, portfolio credit risk, and derivative contracts. The alternative models explored include:
* Loans as options and the KMV model
* The VAR approach: J. P. Morgan's CreditMetrics and other models
* The macro simulation approach: the McKinsey and other models
* The risk-neutral valuation approach: KPMG's Loan Analysis System (LAS) and other models
* The insurance approach: mortality models and CSFP credit risk plus model
* Back testing and stress testing credit risk models
* RAROC models
With itscomprehensive coverage, summary, and comparison of new internal model approaches along with clear explanations of often complex material, Credit Risk Measurement is an indispensable resource for bankers, academics and students, economists, and regulators.

A history of US involvement in late twentieth-century campaigns against global poverty and how they came to focus on women A War on Global Poverty provides a fresh account of US involvement in campaigns to end global poverty in the 1970s and 1980s. From the decline of modernization programs to the rise of microcredit, Joanne Meyerowitz looks beyond familiar histories of development and explains why antipoverty programs increasingly focused on women as the deserving poor. When the United States joined the war on global poverty, economists, policymakers, and activists asked how to change a world in which millions lived in need. Moved to the left by socialists, social democrats, and religious humanists, they rejected the notion that economic growth would trickle down to the poor, and they proposed programs to redress inequities between and within nations. In an emerging "women in development" movement, they positioned women as economic actors who could help lift families and nations out of destitution. In the more conservative 1980s, the war on global poverty turned decisively toward market-based projects in the private sector. Development experts and antipoverty advocates recast women as entrepreneurs and imagined microcredit-with its tiny loans-as a grassroots solution. Meyerowitz shows that at the very moment when the overextension of credit left poorer nations bankrupt, loans to impoverished women came to replace more ambitious proposals that aimed at redistribution. Based on a wealth of sources, A War on Global Poverty looks at a critical transformation in antipoverty efforts in the late twentieth century and points to its legacies today.

Why do lenders time and again loan money to sovereign borrowers who promptly go bankrupt? When can this type of lending work? As the United States and many European nations struggle with mountains of debt, historical precedents can offer valuable insights. "Lending to the Borrower from Hell" looks at one famous case--the debts and defaults of Philip II of Spain. Ruling over one of the largest and most powerful empires in history, King Philip defaulted four times. Yet he never lost access to capital markets and could borrow again within a year or two of each default. Exploring the shrewd reasoning of the lenders who continued to offer money, Mauricio Drelichman and Hans-Joachim Voth analyze the lessons from this important historical example.

Using detailed new evidence collected from sixteenth-century archives, Drelichman and Voth examine the incentives and returns of lenders. They provide powerful evidence that in the right situations, lenders not only survive despite defaults--they thrive. Drelichman and Voth also demonstrate that debt markets cope well, despite massive fluctuations in expenditure and revenue, when lending functions like insurance. The authors unearth unique sixteenth-century loan contracts that offered highly effective risk sharing between the king and his lenders, with payment obligations reduced in bad times.

A fascinating story of finance and empire, "Lending to the Borrower from Hell" offers an intelligent model for keeping economies safe in times of sovereign debt crises and defaults.

Credit risk is today one of the most intensely studied topics in quantitative finance. This book provides an introduction and overview for readers who seek an up-to-date reference to the central problems of the field and to the tools currently used to analyze them. The book is aimed at researchers and students in finance, at quantitative analysts in banks and other financial institutions, and at regulators interested in the modeling aspects of credit risk.

David Lando considers the two broad approaches to credit risk analysis: that based on classical option pricing models on the one hand, and on a direct modeling of the default probability of issuers on the other. He offers insights that can be drawn from each approach and demonstrates that the distinction between the two approaches is not at all clear-cut. The book strikes a fruitful balance between quickly presenting the basic ideas of the models and offering enough detail so readers can derive and implement the models themselves. The discussion of the models and their limitations and five technical appendixes help readers expand and generalize the models themselves or to understand existing generalizations. The book emphasizes models for pricing as well as statistical techniques for estimating their parameters. Applications include rating-based modeling, modeling of dependent defaults, swap- and corporate-yield curve dynamics, credit default swaps, and collateralized debt obligations.

Credit scoring aims to quantify the likelihood of a prospective borrower defaulting on payment over a specified period of time. The credit score is calculated using increasingly sophisticated statistical models, which vary considerably between individual cases. This clearly-written and comprehensive text covers the scorecard development process and provides a practical how-to guide for those wanting to use and develop credit scoring techniques.
Assuming little prior knowledge, the text includes the relevant statistical and mathematical tools, numerous real-life examples, and discussion of the credit risk management cycle and the importance of credit scoring in business and regulatory environments, including Basel II.
An extensive glossary and bibliography make this an indispensable desktop reference for graduate students in statistics, business, economics and finance, MBA students, credit risk and financial practitioners.

This is a succinct guide to the application and modelling of dependence models or copulas in the financial markets. First applied to credit risk modelling, copulas are now widely used across a range of derivatives transactions, asset pricing techniques and risk models and are a core part of the financial engineer's toolkit.

An institutional investor's guide to the burgeoning field of reverse mortgage securitization

"Reverse Mortgages and Linked Securities" is a contributed title comprising many of the leading minds in the Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM) industry, including reverse mortgage lenders, institutional investors, underwriters, attorneys, and regulators.

This book begins with a brief history of reverse mortgages, and quickly moves on to discuss how the industry has evolved-detailing the players in these markets as well as the process. It discusses the securitization of reverse mortgages and other linked securities and includes coverage of pricing techniques and risk mitigation. This reliable resource also takes the time to cover the current regulatory environment of the HECM market, which is constantly changing due to the current state of the real estate market.Highlights specific strategies that will allow institutional investors to benefit from the resurgence of reverse mortgages and linked securities""One of the only guides to reverse mortgages and linked securities targeted towards institutional investors interested in securitized products

If you want to make the most of reverse mortgages and linked securities, take the time to read this book.

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of a textbook for graduate students in finance, with new coverage of global financial institutions. This thoroughly revised and updated edition of a widely used textbook for graduate students in finance now provides expanded coverage of global financial institutions, with detailed comparisons of U.S. systems with non-U.S. systems. A focus on the actual practices of financial institutions prepares students for real-world problems. After an introduction to financial markets and market participants, including asset management firms, credit rating agencies, and investment banking firms, the book covers risks and asset pricing, with a new overview of risk; the structure of interest rates and interest rate and credit risks; the fundamentals of primary and secondary markets; government debt markets, with new material on non-U.S. sovereign debt markets; corporate funding markets, with new coverage of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurial ventures; residential and commercial real estate markets; collective investment vehicles, in a chapter new to this edition; and financial derivatives, including financial futures and options, interest rate derivatives, foreign exchange derivatives, and credit risk transfer vehicles such as credit default swaps. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with bullet point takeaways and questions.

The book provides an engaging account of theoretical, empirical, and practical aspects of various statistical methods in measuring risks of financial institutions, especially banks. In this book, the author demonstrates how banks can apply many simple but effective statistical techniques to analyze risks they face in business and safeguard themselves from potential vulnerability. It covers three primary areas of banking; risks-credit, market, and operational risk and in a uniquely intuitive, step-by-step manner the author provides hands-on details on the primary statistical tools that can be applied for financial risk measurement and management. The book lucidly introduces concepts of various well-known statistical methods such as correlations, regression, matrix approach, probability and distribution theorem, hypothesis testing, value at risk, and Monte Carlo simulation techniques and provides a hands-on estimation and interpretation of these tests in measuring risks of the financial institutions. The book strikes a fine balance between concepts and mathematics to tell a rich story of thoughtful use of statistical methods.

Since the rise of the small-sum lending industry in the 1890s, people on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder in the United States have been asked to pay the greatest price for credit. Again and again, Americans have asked why the most fragile borrowers face the highest costs for access to the smallest loans. To protect low-wage workers in need of credit, reformers have repeatedly turned to law, only to face the vexing question of where to draw the line between necessary protection and overreaching paternalism. City of Debtors shows how each generation of Americans has tackled the problem of fringe finance, using law to redefine the meaning of justice within capitalism for those on the economic margins. Anne Fleming tells the story of the small-sum lending industry's growth and regulation from the ground up, following the people who navigated the market for small loans and those who shaped its development at the state and local level. Fleming's focus on the city and state of New York, which served as incubators for numerous lending reforms that later spread throughout the nation, differentiates her approach from work that has centered on federal regulation. It also reveals the overlooked challenges of governing a modern financial industry within a federalist framework. Fleming's detailed work contributes to the broader and ongoing debate about the meaning of justice within capitalistic societies, by exploring the fault line in the landscape of capitalism where poverty, the welfare state, and consumer credit converge.

An Analytical Approach to Investments, Finance, and Credit provides a highly practical and relevant guide to graduating students beginning their careers in investment banking. The author applies his 30 plus years of experience in banking and 15 years of teaching as an adjunct finance professor to effectively combine the core principals of an academic textbook with the practical training that major investment banks provide to first-year analysts. Part I introduces the student to investment portfolio concepts including volatility risk, alpha, beta, Sharpe ratio, and efficient frontiers. Part II covers the primary markets where companies access the equity, bond, and loan markets. Part III explains these markets from the investor's point of view, covering the secondary trading markets of stocks, bonds, loans, and derivatives. Part IV comprises corporate finance fundamentals that many investment banks require for valuation, financial, and credit analysis for private and publicly traded companies. Part V provides students with step-by-step financial modeling for analyzing leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and other complex financial models. These models are accessible via the Cognella Active Learning platform. Throughout the text, the author provides multiple case studies that bridge the gap between academic concepts and practical application, which reinforces critical thinking.

As early as the 1930s, Britain had a highly innovative and profitable mortgage sector that promoted a major extension in home ownership. These controversial and risky offerings had an equivalent in numerous hire purchase agreements, with which new homes were furnished. Such developments were forerunners of the 'easy credit' regime more commonly associated with the 1980s. Taking a long-term perspective on this issue indicates that Britain's departure from European models of consumer credit markets was not simply a by-product of neoliberalism's influence on the Thatcher administration, and this book offers a much fuller explanation to the phenomenon. It explores debates within and between the major political parties; reveals the infighting amongst civil service departments over management of consumer demand; charts the varying degrees of influence wielded by the Bank of England and finance capital, as opposed to that of consumer durable manufacturers; reviews the perspectives of consumers and their representatives; and explains the role of contingency and path dependency in these historical events. The central focus of this book is on consumer credit, but this subject provides a case study through which to explore numerous other important areas of British history. These include debates on the issues of post-war consensus, the impact of rising home ownership and its impact on consumer credit and personal finance markets, the management of consumer society, political responses to affluence, the development of consumer protection policy, and the influence of neoliberalism.

Regardless of their background, UK Property Professionals often find themselves having to make Credit Management decisions on a daily basis without either training or experience. This book provides an accessible reference guide, covering all the main transactional events which Property Professionals encounter in the course of their work, with advice and case studies demonstrating how to minimise financial exposure and eliminate loss. This is not a text book, rather it is a simple set of touch points and no go areas which will enable anyone in the commercial property industry to avoid the pitfalls that so many people encounter when conducting business in good faith with others. In my thirty plus years in the credit industry, much of it in property, I've come across most of the situations that can crop up to disrupt the landlord and tenant relationship, and in this book I share my thoughts, experiences, procedures and remedies in the hope that others may learn the easy way!

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This book examines the role of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other key players in the American mortgage market, in precipitating the current global financial crisis. From President Clinton's announcement of the 'National Home Ownership Strategy' in 1995 to its collapse in 2008, this book deftly explains the aims and consequences of extending mortgage lending to people who could not afford home ownership. Bankers, investment banks, rating agencies and derivatives have all been awarded their share of the blame, while politicians, regulators and government agencies have successfully avoided theirs. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been implicated, but the true story of their marriage made in hell has never been told.

In a 2009 study of the debt collection industry, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded that the "most significant change in the debt collection business in recent years has been the advent and growth of debt buying". "Debt buying" refers to the sale of debt by creditors or other debt owners to buyers that then attempt to collect the debt or sell it to other buyers. Debt buying can reduce the losses that creditors incur in providing credit, thereby allowing creditors to provide more credit at lower prices. Debt buying, however, also many raise significant consumer protection concerns. The FTC receives more consumer complaints about debt collectors, including debt buyers, than about any other single industry. Many of these complaints appear to have their origins in the quantity and quality of information that collectors have about debts. This book provides an overview of the debt buying market and the process of buying and selling debt; and the nature and extent of the relationship between the practice of debt buying and the types of information that the FTC has found can occur when debt collectors seek to recover and verify debts.

This book describes the credit reporting infrastructure at the three largest nation-wide consumer reporting agencies (NCRAs), Equifax Information Services LLC, TransUnion LLC, and Experian Information Solutions Inc., with a special focus on the infrastructure and processes currently used by the NCRAs to collect, compile, and report information about consumers in the form of credit reports. Credit reports play an increasingly important role in the lives of American consumers. Most decisions to grant credit, including mortgage loans, auto loans, credit cards, and private student loans, include information contained in credit reports as part of the lending decision. These reports are also used in other spheres of decision making, including eligibility for rental housing, setting premiums for auto and homeowners insurance in some states, or determining whether to hire an applicant for a job. As the range and frequency of decisions that rely on credit reports have increased, so has the importance of assuring the accuracy of these reports.

The U.S. government uses federal credit (direct loans and loan guarantees) to allocate capital to a range of areas including home ownership, student loans, small business, agriculture, and energy. A direct loan is "a disbursement of funds by the government to a non-federal borrower under a contract that requires the repayment of such funds with or without interest." A loan guarantee is "a pledge with respect to the payment of all or part of the principal or interest on any debt obligation of a non-federal borrower to a non-federal lender." At the end of FY2011, outstanding federal direct loans totalled $838 billion and outstanding guaranteed loans totalled $2,017 billion. This book describes the concepts, budgetary treatment and reform proposals of federal credit.