Credit and interest rate risk are the two most important risks faced by commercial banks in their banking book. In this paper we derive a consistent and comprehensive framework to measure the integrated impact of both risks. By taking account of the repricing characteristics of assets, liabilities and off balance sheet items, we assess the integrated impact of credit and interest rate risk on banks’ economic value and capital adequacy. We then stress test a hypothetical but realistic bank using our framework and show that it is fundamental to measure the impact of credit and interest rate risk jointly.

This paper analyses the UK interest rate term structure over the period since October 1992, when the United Kingdom adopted an explicit inflation target, using an affine term structure model estimated using both government bond yields and survey data. The model imposes no-arbitrage restrictions across nominal and real yields, which enables interest rates to be decomposed into expected real policy rates, expected inflation, real term premia and inflation risk premia. The model is used to shed light on major developments over the period, including the impact of Bank of England independence and the low real bond yield ‘conundrum’.