Search

Existing theories of the term structure of swap rates provide an analysis of the Treasury-swap spread based on either a liquidity convenience yield in the Treasury market, or default risk in the swap market. Although these models do not focus on the relation between corporate yields and swap rates (the LIBOR-swap spread), they imply that the term structure of corporate yields and swap rates should be identical. As documented previously (e.g., in Sun, Sundaresan, and Wang (1993)) this is counterfactual. Here, we propose a model of the default risk imbedded in the swap term structure that is able to explain the LIBOR-swap spread. Whereas corporate bonds carry default risk, we argue that swap contracts are free of default risk. Because swaps are indexed on "refreshed"-credit-quality LIBOR rates, the spread between corporate yields and swap rates should capture the market's expectations of the probability of deterioration in credit quality of a corporate bond issuer. We model this feature and use our model to estimate the likelihood of future deterioration in credit quality from the LIBOR-swap spread. The analysis is important because it shows that the term structure of swap rates does not reflect the borrowing cost of a standard LIBOR credit quality issuer. It also has implications for modeling the dynamics of the swap term structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the global financial crisis of 2008 on the aspects of financial industry such as on the interest rate swaps in the U.S. Topics discussed include impact on the LIBOR and corporate bond rate, causes of action affected by the swaps, and effectiveness of the doctrine of frustration of commercial purpose as the financial recovery for the losers in interest rate swaps during the financial crisis.

Refunding is the operation by which the issuer of a bond calls it before maturity in order to replace it with another issue. The chief reason for calling is the interest saving which a new bond may make possible. In deciding whether to call a bond at any given time, the issuer must consider not only the potential savings from the current refunding, but also from future refundings up to some horizon fixed by financial policy. These savings must also be compared with those resulting from the decision to postpone refunding. This paper formulates the refunding problem in terms of a dynamic programming model in which the term structure of interest rates is utilized to obtain information about the future course of interest rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]