Description: Abstract: A model for analyzing the probability and severity of default of sovereign entities and banks. The methodology analyzes the risks inherent in the investment of debt of sovereign governments and large financial institutions side-by-side, taking into consideration macroeconomic interactions among the sovereign fiscal and monetary authorities, the financial institutions, and the real economy. The signature aspect of the methodology is that it adapts a Merton-style default model to use explicit measures of sovereign assets and asset volatility.

Description: A comprehensive analysis of the current economic crisis and risk management that considers the social and political behavior of people.

Description: Spreadsheets have become ubiquitous in business and forecasting. However, they do not usually have the same level of control that any other complex program would require. As a result, we often get erroneous results which can have far reaching, negative consequences.

Description: Applies the economic concept of negative externality (where firms profit but create unacceptable social costs) to systemic of financial institutions. Identifies alternatives to the traditional (Pigou) response of taxing the firm.

Description: Joseph Lu considers the risk of pandemics and whether actuaries can go beyond just modelling financial losses towards working on prevention

Description: In this mortgage crisis, it appears mortgage brokers and mortgage originating bankers were similar to unchecked MGAs. These brokers and banks had an incentive to produce mortgages that would generate fees for them. Those mortgagees would then be sold to investors, generating additional fees – but it appears there were often no incentives to align the interests of those mortgage producers with the purchasers of these mortgages. The brokers and banks “did not have any skin in the game.”

Description: Summary of the July, 2013 newsletter with an executive overview of each article.

Description: This article discusses some of the ideas of pension finance, how to present such information, and how it was presented to the New York City Retirement Systems (NYCRS) in a way that made it available to other interested parties, including the public.

Description: The 2008 global financial crisis highlighted the costs of supporting systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) as well as the linkages both between institutions as well as across countries. The G 20 tasked the Financial Stability Board (FSB) along with international regulatory associations such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to evolve frameworks for supervision of such SIFIs.

Description: This article discusses the global capital standards for Global Systemically Important Insurers (G-SIIs) and Internationally Active Insurance Groups (IAIGs) currently being developed by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).