The COSO Framework for Internal Control
February 12, 2025
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The concept of value at risk (VaR) is closely connected with the concept of market risk mitigation. This is why the discussion about one invariably turns to a discussion about the other. The concept of value at risk (VaR) was developed by many financial institutions as they wanted to know how volatile their portfolio was. […]
In the previous articles, we have studied how the value at risk (VaR) models should be used to calculate risks. However, the calculation of risks is not the ultimate end goal. Instead, it is efficient management of this risk that makes the value at risk (VaR) model valuable.
Let’s assume that in a particular instance, the value at risk (VaR) model gives a value that is unacceptable to the organization. In such a situation, the organization would ideally have to divest a part of its portfolio in order to reduce the overall risk. Here it will be faced with the question about which part of their portfolio should be divested. Hence, the risk characteristics of sub-portfolios present within the portfolio will have to be measured in order to decide which part should be divested.
Such calculations are done using marginal, incremental, and component value at risk (VaR) models. These models allow the overall risk to be broken into its component parts for the purpose of analysis.
In other words, these models are used to drill down the overall value at risk (VaR) number into its constituent parts. In this article, we will have a closer look at what these statistics are and how they should be interpreted.
Define sub-portfolio: The first step in conducting and kind of drill-down analysis is to clearly define component parts. These component parts are then labeled as sub-portfolios and all the statistical analysis is done at a sub-portfolio level. Different organizations define their sub-portfolios in different ways.
Some organizations define their sub-portfolios at an asset class level. This means that the stocks will be considered to be one sub-portfolio, whereas bonds will be considered another one and derivatives will be considered a third one.
Similarly, it is also possible to define a sub-portfolio at the line of business level. For instance, corporate banking can be considered to be one sub-portfolio, investment banking can be considered to be a second portfolio whereas retail banking can be considered to be the third one.
Once the component parts have been decided, the next step is to break the overall value at risk (VaR) into these components.
The next step is to completely eliminate one sub-portfolio and then recalculate the value at risk (VaR).
For instance, if a portfolio consists of stocks, bonds, and derivatives, we can remove derivatives and then calculate the value at risk (VaR) for stocks and bonds. The difference between the two value-at-risk (VaR) numbers will be the VaR for derivatives. This analysis is very useful since it explains how much risk each sub-portfolio is adding to the overall risk. This analysis then becomes the basis for hedging and risk management efforts. The divestment of portfolios is also often done on this basis.
For instance, if assets worth $250 were being deleted from a $1000 portfolio, then the weight assigned would be 25%. This weight is then multiplied by the marginal value at risk (VaR) and the portfolio value of that position to be deleted.
In the case of incremental value at risk (VaR), none of the sub-portfolios are completely eliminated. Instead, small changes are made to the values of these portfolios and the resultant value at risk (VaR) is calculated. There are two methods that are commonly used to calculate the incremental value at risk (VaR).
The purpose of incremental value at risk (VaR) is to explain how much additional risk is added if we increase another unit of the portfolio.
The bottom line is that marginal, component, as well as incremental value at risk (VaR), provide market risk managers with an important tool for understanding the root cause of the market risk. This helps risk managers identify the sub-portfolios which are creating disproportionately high risks and then eliminate them.
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