Title: Credit Risk Meets Random Matrices: Coping with Non-Stationary Asset Correlations,
Abstract: We review recent progress in modeling credit risk for correlated assets. We
start from the Merton model which default events and losses are derived from
the asset values at maturity. To estimate the time development of the asset
values, the stock prices are used whose correlations have a strong impact on
the loss distribution, particularly on its tails. These correlations are
non-stationary which also influences the tails. We account for the asset
fluctuations by averaging over an ensemble of random matrices that models the
truly existing set of measured correlation matrices. As a most welcome side
effect, this approach drastically reduces the parameter dependence of the loss
distribution, allowing us to obtain very explicit results which show
quantitatively that the heavy tails prevail over diversification benefits even
for small correlations. We calibrate our random matrix model with market data
and show how it is capable of grasping different market situations.
Furthermore, we present numerical simulations for concurrent portfolio risks,
i.e., for the joint probability densities of losses for two portfolios. For the
convenience of the reader, we give an introduction to the Wishart random matrix
model.