GARP Updated 2016-FRR Exam Questions and Answers by nour

The TED spread is the difference between the interest rates on interbank loans and short-term U.S. government debt (Treasuries). A rising TED spread indicates that lenders believe the risk of default on interbank loans is increasing. This typically reflects increased credit risk, market risk, and liquidity risk among banks. Higher TED spreads suggest that banks are less willing to lend to each other due to concerns about their solvency and liquidity positions.

Risk and control self-assessments (RCSA) have several advantages:

They provide insight into risks that exist in a firm but may not have occurred before (II).

They allow each department to take ownership of its own risks and controls (IV). However, RCSA may not always provide very accurate scoring of risks and controls due to its subjective nature (I), and while it can produce biased operational risk reporting, the primary advantage is the transparency it offers, not the bias (III).

Explanation:

The convexity of a portfolio of bonds is calculated as the value-weighted average convexity of the individual bonds. This considers the proportion of each bond's value in relation to the total portfolio value.

ReferencesExplanation based on portfolio management principles.

Comprehensive and Detailed In-Depth Explanation:

Spread risk refers to the risk of a change in an instrument’s price due to fluctuations in its credit spread (the yield premium over a risk-free rate), without a change in its credit rating. This is a market risk factor, often affecting bonds or CDS, driven by market perceptions rather than rating agency actions. Option B relates to collateral risk, Option C to credit rating risk, and Option D to modeling discrepancies—none define spread risk. GARP’s FRR and Basel III market risk rules support this definition.