SCCL - Single Counterparty Credit Risk Limits

The global banking community has long debated the best path forward for managing credit risk following the 2008 financial crisis with two types of strategies—strict risk limits, capital charges or a combination of both—have already been variously implemented as or are in finalization. Capping the risk to a single counterparty as a percentage of total capital on hand is one way of doing this, particularly in order to limit excessive exposure between systemically important banks and thus avoid any potential domino effect should one of them fall into distress. This idea, combined in the US with an additional Total Loss Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) assessment, features prominently as a tenet of capital adequacy.

On a technology level, marrying aggregate exposures data with firm-level capital data—two sets of information traditionally sitting in separate parts of the bank—is one major challenge, while keeping each of these accurate and up to date is yet another. Valuation adjustments (capital charges) have proven contentious as a matter of regulatory mandate; the industry continues to argue over risk limit percentages, too. But banks now have both natural and compliance-driven motivations to be as precise as possible regarding single counterparty exposure. AxiomSL’s historical strength in risk data aggregation can help them get there.

• Modular design enables clients to integrate external systems at various entry points in the process
• Delivers FR 2590 reporting requirements including top 50 counterparties identification
• Tracks daily/quarterly changes in net exposure, counterparty rank and other attributes
• Users control mapping of source data
• Visual work flow provides user-defined actions
• Ensures accuracy and data quality via validation and integrity checks

• Delivers complete exposure dataset based on a master data dictionary
• Provides traceability to methods, parameters and source data
• Strengthens operating efficiency and controls and audit defensibility
• Enables Basel III strategic implementation leveraging a unified data dictionary for SCCL and capital