Securitization and the dark side of diversification

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Abstract

Diversification by banks affects the systemic risk of the sector. Importantly, Wagner (2010) shows that linear diversification increases systemic risk. We consider the case of securitization, whereby loan portfolios are sliced into tranches with different seniority levels. We show that tranching offers nonlinear diversification strategies, which can reduce the failure risk of individual institutions beyond the minimum level attainable by linear diversification without increasing systemic risk. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)214-231
JournalJournal of Financial Intermediation
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2014
Externally publishedYes

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