IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v31y2019ics1544612318307165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal margin requirement

Author

Listed:
  • Berlinger, Edina
  • Dömötör, Barbara
  • Illés, Ferenc

Abstract

We investigate the optimal level of margin requirement in centralized or decentralized clearing and settlement systems. We prove in an analytical model that aggressively risk-sensitive margins are not optimal, and the actual position of the clients and the general macroeconomic conditions, like overall funding liquidity should also be taken into consideration. For example, in a crisis period characterized by high volatility, the clearing institution may be tempted to require larger margins to cover potential losses, however, clients just have difficulties to finance higher margins, hence, the probability of non-payment increases, and the expected loss of the clearing institution may also increase. We show that under realistic specifications, there exists a unique optimal margin minimizing the expected loss of the clearing institution. Characterizing this optimum, we provide a micro-level foundation for anti-cyclical risk management techniques (margins, collaterals, haircuts etc.) in general.

Suggested Citation

  • Berlinger, Edina & Dömötör, Barbara & Illés, Ferenc, 2019. "Optimal margin requirement," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:31:y:2019:i:c:s1544612318307165
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2018.11.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612318307165
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2018.11.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brennan, Michael J., 1986. "A theory of price limits in futures markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 213-233, June.
    2. Benos, Evangelos & Garratt, Rodney & Gurrola-Perez, Pedro, 2017. "The economics of distributed ledger technology for securities settlement," Bank of England working papers 670, Bank of England.
    3. Loon, Yee Cheng & Zhong, Zhaodong Ken, 2014. "The impact of central clearing on counterparty risk, liquidity, and trading: Evidence from the credit default swap market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 91-115.
    4. George W. Fenn & Paul Kupiec, 1993. "Prudential margin policy in a futures‐style settlement system," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(4), pages 389-408, June.
    5. Merton, Robert C, 1974. "On the Pricing of Corporate Debt: The Risk Structure of Interest Rates," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 449-470, May.
    6. Shanker, Latha & Balakrishnan, Narayanaswamy, 2005. "Optimal clearing margin, capital and price limits for futures clearinghouses," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1611-1630, July.
    7. Koeppl, Thorsten & Monnet, Cyril & Temzelides, Ted, 2012. "Optimal clearing arrangements for financial trades," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 189-203.
    8. Stephen Figlewski, 1984. "Margins and market integrity: Margin setting for stock index futures and options," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 4(3), pages 385-416, September.
    9. Crouhy, Michel & Galai, Dan & Mark, Robert, 2000. "A comparative analysis of current credit risk models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 59-117, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Friesz, Melinda & Váradi, Kata, 2023. "Your skin or mine: Ensuring the viability of a central counterparty," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    2. Dávid Zoltán Szabó & Kata Váradi, 2022. "Margin requirements based on a stochastic correlation model," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(10), pages 1797-1820, October.
    3. Melinda Friesz & Kira Muratov-Szabó & Andrea Prepuk & Kata Váradi, 2021. "Risk Mutualization in Central Clearing: An Answer to the Cross-Guarantee Phenomenon from the Financial Stability Viewpoint," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-19, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berlinger, Edina & Dömötör, Barbara & Illés, Ferenc, 2019. "Anti-cyclical versus risk-sensitive margin strategies in central clearing," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 117-131.
    2. Capponi, Agostino & Cheng, Wan-Schwin Allen & Giglio, Stefano & Haynes, Richard, 2022. "The collateral rule: Evidence from the credit default swap market," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 58-86.
    3. Ron Berndsen, 2021. "Fundamental questions on central counterparties: A review of the literature," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(12), pages 2009-2022, December.
    4. Robert A. Jones & Christophe Pérignon, 2013. "Derivatives Clearing, Default Risk, and Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(2), pages 373-400, June.
    5. Chen-Yu Chen & Jian-Hsin Chou & Hung-Gay Fung & Yiuman Tse, 2017. "Setting the futures margin with price limits: the case for single-stock futures," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 219-237, January.
    6. Berndsen, Ron, 2020. "Five Fundamental Questions on Central Counterparties," Other publications TiSEM 1f3bd844-92ab-4104-8f57-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. David Bates & Roger Craine, 1998. "Valuing the Futures Market Clearinghouse's Default Exposure During the 1987 Crash," NBER Working Papers 6505, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Schuermann, Til & Treutler, Bjorn-Jakob & Weiner, Scott M., 2006. "Macroeconomic Dynamics and Credit Risk: A Global Perspective," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(5), pages 1211-1261, August.
    9. Berry K. Wilson & John T. Donnellan, 2016. "The Technology of Ratings Then and Now; Hiding in Plain Sight," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 49-74, January.
    10. Ephraim Clark & Geeta Lakshmi, 2003. "Controlling the risk: a case study of the Indian liquidity crisis 1990-92," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 285-298.
    11. Meng-Jou Lu & Cathy Yi-Hsuan Chen & Wolfgang Karl Härdle, 2017. "Copula-based factor model for credit risk analysis," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 949-971, November.
    12. Correa, Arnildo & Marins, Jaqueline & Neves, Myrian & da Silva, Antonio Carlos, 2014. "Credit Default and Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation of Brazilian Retail Loans," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 68(3), September.
    13. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    14. Antinolfi, Gaetano & Carapella, Francesca & Carli, Francesco, 2022. "Transparency and collateral: central versus bilateral clearing," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(1), January.
    15. Jean-David Fermanian, 2020. "On the Dependence between Default Risk and Recovery Rates in Structural Models," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 140, pages 45-82.
    16. Maclachlan, Iain C, 2007. "An empirical study of corporate bond pricing with unobserved capital structure dynamics," MPRA Paper 28416, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Ulrich Erlenmaier & Hans Gersbach, 2014. "Default Correlations in the Merton Model," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(5), pages 1775-1809.
    18. Christian Kubitza & Loriana Pelizzon & Mila Getmansky Sherman, 2024. "Loss Sharing in Central Clearinghouses: Winners and Losers," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 237-273.
    19. Maria Stefanova, 2012. "Recovery Risiko in der Kreditportfoliomodellierung," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-8349-4226-5, October.
    20. Gagliardini, P. & Gourieroux, C., 2005. "Migration correlation: Definition and efficient estimation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 865-894, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:31:y:2019:i:c:s1544612318307165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.