Liquidation Value and Loan Pricing

Abstract

This paper shows that the liquidation value of collateral depends on the interdependency between borrower and collateral risk. Using transaction-level data on short-term repurchase agreements (repo), we show that borrowers pay a premium of 1.1 to 2.6 basis points when their default risk is positively correlated with the risk of the collateral that they pledge. Moreover, we show that borrowers internalize this premium when making their collateral choices. Loan-level credit registry data suggest that the results extend to the corporate loan market as well.