Value at risk and bank capital management Saita, Francesco

Includes bibliographical references and index.

In this book, Francesco Saita argues that even though risk measurement techniques have greatly improved in recent years for market, credit and now also operational risk, capital management and capital allocation decisions are far from becoming purely technical and mechanical. On one hand, decisions about capital management must consider handling different capital constraints (e.g. regulatory vs. economic capital) and face remarkable difficulties in providing a measure of aggregated Value at Risk (i.e. a measure that considers the overall value at risk of the bank after diversification across risk types). On the other hand, the aim of using capital more efficiently through capital allocation cannot be achieved only through a sort of centralized asset allocation process, but rather by designing a Value at Risk limit system and a risk-adjusted performance measurement system that are designed to provide the right incentives to individual business units. This connection between sophisticated and cutting edge risk measurement techniques and practical bank decision making about capital management and capital allocation make this book unique and provide readers with a depth of academic and theoretical expertise combined with practical and real-world understanding of bank structure, organizational constraints, and decision making processes. (Source: http://www.elsevierdirect.com/)