Funding Value Adjustments

54 Pages Posted: 3 Jul 2016

See all articles by Leif B. G. Andersen

Leif B. G. Andersen

Bank of America

Darrell Duffie

Stanford University - Graduate School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Canadian Derivatives Institute

Yang Song

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 22, 2016

Abstract

We demonstrate that large funding value adjustments (FVAs) being made by derivatives dealers to the disclosed valuations of their swap books are not consistent with any coherent notion of fair market value. Essentially the same funding cost adjustment is a reduction in the dealer's equity value. This reduction in equity value is exactly offset by the sum of an upward adjustment to a dealer's debt valuation (as a wealth transfer from shareholders) and a change in the present value of the dealer's financial distress costs. While others have already suggested that FVA accounting suffers from coherence problems, this paper is the first to identify and characterize these problems in the context of a full structural model of a dealer's balance sheet. In addition to giving an appropriate theoretical foundation for funding value adjustments, our model shows how dealers' bid and ask quotes should be adjusted so as to compensate shareholders for the impact of both funding costs and the dealer's own default risk. We also establish a pecking order for preferred swap financing strategies, characterize the valuation effects of initial margin financing (known as "MVA"), and provide a new interpretation of the standard debit value adjustment (DVA).

Keywords: Funding value adjustment, swap XVAs, debit value adjustment, debt overhang

JEL Classification: G12, G20

Suggested Citation

Andersen, Leif B.G. and Duffie, James Darrell and Song, Yang, Funding Value Adjustments (April 22, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2803061

Leif B.G. Andersen

Bank of America ( email )

One Bryant Park
New York, NY 10036
United States
646-855-1835 (Phone)

James Darrell Duffie

Stanford University - Graduate School of Business ( email )

655 Knight Way
Knight Management Center
Stanford, CA 94305-7298
United States
650-723-1976 (Phone)
650-725-8916 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Canadian Derivatives Institute ( email )

3000, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine
Montréal, Québec H3T 2A7
Canada

Yang Song (Contact Author)

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business ( email )

Box 353200
Seattle, WA 98195-3200
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
51
Abstract Views
409
Rank
14,943
PlumX Metrics