Credit risk of collaterals: Examining the systematic linkage between insolvencies and physical assets in Germany

Abstract

According to the new capital adequacy framework (Basel II) the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) strongly advices banks to investigate the relationship between default rates and values of collaterals of secured loan portfolios. This is caused by the fact that the values of collaterals are expected to decline with rising defaults. However, the literature on modelling and examining this effect is rather rare. Therefore, we present a framework based on the Internal Ratings Based (IRB) approach of Basel II in order to examine such dependencies using standard econometric tests. We apply it to insolvency rates and empirical data for physical assets.