Free Practice Questions for PRMIA 8008 Exam

The first two formulae describe component VaR. The last formula is the formula for Marginal VaR. Therefore I and II is the correct answer.

Component VaR is a VaR decomposition technique that allows the total VaR for a portfolio to be broken down and attributed to the components of a portfolio. The total of the component VaR for each constituent of a portfolio is equal to the VaR for the portfolio. This property is extremely useful as opposed to the standalone VaR for each constituent taken alone as it can be used for allocating trading budgets.

Choice 'd' represents a risk that does not arise from its holdings of mortgages. Therefore Choice 'd' is the correct answer.

All the other risks identified are correct - the bank faces interest rate, default and prepayment risks on its mortgages.

According to Basel II, where marking-to-market is not possible, banks may mark-to-model, where this can be demonstrated to be prudent. Marking-to-model is defined as any valuation which has to be benchmarked, extrapolated or otherwise calculated from a market input. When marking to model, an extra degree of conservatism is appropriate. Supervisory authorities will consider the following in assessing whether a mark-to-model valuation is prudent:

• Senior management should be aware of the elements of the trading book which are subject to mark to model and should understand the materiality of the uncertainty this creates in the reporting of the risk/performance of the business.

• Market inputs should be sourced, to the extent possible, in line with market prices. The appropriateness of the market inputs for the particular position being valued should be reviewed regularly.

• Where available, generally accepted valuation methodologies for particular products should be used as far as possible.

• Where the model is developed by the institution itself, it should be based on appropriate assumptions, which have been assessed and challenged by suitably qualified parties independent of the development process. The model should be developed or approved independently of the front office. It should be independently tested. This includes validating the mathematics, the assumptions and the software implementation.

• There should be formal change control procedures in place and a secure copy of the model should be held and periodically used to check valuations.

• Risk management should be aware of the weaknesses of the models used and how best to reflect those in the valuation output.

• The model should be subject to periodic review to determine the accuracy of its performance (e.g. assessing continued appropriateness of the assumptions, analysis of P&L versus risk factors, comparison of actual close out values to model outputs).

• Valuation adjustments should be made as appropriate, for example, to cover the uncertainty of the model valuation.

The model should be created independent of the front office, and not by it. Therefore statement III does not represent an appropriate choice. Choice 'a' is the correct answer.

The index option is affected by the spot value for the underlying index, as also the risk free interest rate, or the zero rate for the duration of the option. It is also affected by the volatility of the underlying. The 'strike price' is set and is fixed at the time the option is purchased, and therefore is not a risk factor.

Therefore other than IV, all other choices are valid risk factors that underlie an equity index option.

Other instruments may have other risk factors - for example, a long forex position will have the spot exchange rate as the only risk factor.

All of the distributions referred to in the question can be used to model the loss severity distribution for op risk. Therefore Choice 'c' is the correct answer.

The credit risk horizon for credit VaR is generally one year. Therefore Choice 'b' is the correct answer.

Credit enhancements come in two varieties: counterparty based, where the exercise of the credit enhancement requires a third party to pay, and this includes guarantees and CDS contracts. Asset based credit enhancements are based upon a physical asset in possession, and these include collateral and balances owed on other trades or transactions, and availed through close out netting arrangements.

Of the listed choices, I and III are asset based credit enhancements, and II and IV are third party based.

Unexpected loss for a credit portfolio refers to the excess of the VaR estimate over the average expected loss. The term 'unexpected loss' has this specific meaning in the context of credit risk, and not any other intuitive meaning. So if for a portfolio worth $100m expected losses are 4%, and the credit VaR at 99% is $12m, then unexpected losses at that VaR quintile are $8m. This is unrelated to actual realized losses versus expected losses.

Therefore Choice 'd' is the correct answer and the others are not.

Unexpected loss is used to determine the capital reserves to be maintained against a credit portfolio at a certain level of confidence.

The square root of time rule cannot be applied here because the returns across the periods are not independent. (Recall that the square root of time rule requires returns to be iid, independent and identically distributed.) Here there is a 'autocorrelation' in play, which means one period's returns affect the returns of the other period.

This problem can be solved by combining the variance of the returns from the two consecutive periods in the same way as one would combine the variance of different assets that have a given correlation. In such cases we know that:

Variance (A + B) = Variance(A) + Variance(B) + 2*Correlation*StdDev(A)*StdDev(B).

The standard deviation can be calculated by taking the square root of the variance.

Therefore the combined volatility over the two months will be equal to =SQRT((5%^2) + (5%^2) + 2*0.3*5%*5%) = 8.062%. All other answers are incorrect.

Using the beta for VaR calculations is a significant simplification based on the CAPM and the assumption that any specific risks are diversified away. The one thing a risk model based on the CAPM does not consider is the specific risk of individual stocks, because, as mentioned, these are considered to be offsetting each other so that the portfolio only carries market risk reflected in the beta.

Therefore Choice 'c' is not true and therefore the correct answer.