The role of debt valuation factors in systemic risk assessment

Abstract

The fragility of financial systems was starkly demonstrated in early 2023 through a cascade of major bank failures in the United States, including the second, third, and fourth largest collapses in the US history. The highly interdependent financial networks and the associated high systemic risk have been deemed the cause of the crashes. The goal of this paper is to enhance existing systemic risk analysis frameworks by incorporating essential debt valuation factors. Our results demonstrate that these additional elements substantially influence the outcomes of risk assessment. Notably, by modeling the dynamic relationship between interest rates and banks' credibility, our framework can detect potential cascading failures that standard approaches might miss. The proposed risk assessment methodology can help regulatory bodies prevent future failures, while also allowing companies to more accurately predict turmoil periods and strengthen their survivability during such events.