GARP 2016-FRR Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

The PVBP (Present Value of a Basis Point) can be calculated by taking the change in the bond's price and dividing it by the change in yield (expressed in basis points). Here, the bond's price drops from $1,000 to $976 when the yield increases from 4.7% to 4.71%, which is a 1 basis point increase. The change in price is $1,000 - $976 = $24. Therefore, the PVBP is $24 / 1 = $24.

Adverse selection occurs when one party in a transaction has more or better information than the other party, often leading to the more informed party exploiting the situation. In this case, the bank customer chooses a mortgage with low initial payments, knowing she will have trouble making early payments. The bank, using standard default assumptions for ordinary mortgages, underestimates the risk of default, thus exposing itself to adverse selection, where the higher-risk borrowers are more likely to select this type of mortgage.

Identify the variables:

Haircut in a repo transaction: 20%

This implies that the lender will provide cash equivalent to 80% of the value of the collateral (CDOs in this case).

Calculate the maximum leverage factor:

The leverage factor can be calculated as the reciprocal of the proportion of the value after the haircut.

Leverage factor=1Haircut percentageLeverage factor=Haircut percentage1​

Given a 20% haircut, the calculation is:

Leverage factor=10.20=5Leverage factor=0.201​=5

However, in practice, leverage is often cited with respect to the additional amount borrowed relative to the initial equity. Thus, the effective leverage factor here is:

Leverage factor=10.20−1=4Leverage factor=0.201​−1=4