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Westpac Group Pillar 3 Report March 2013 - Iguana IR Sites

Westpac Group Pillar 3 Report March 2013 - Iguana IR Sites

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PILLAR 3 REPORT<br />

COUNTERPARTY CREDIT RISK<br />

Wrong-way risk exposures<br />

<strong>Westpac</strong> defines wrong-way risk as exposure to a counterparty which is adversely correlated with the credit quality<br />

of that counterparty. With respect to credit derivatives, wrong-way risk refers to credit protection purchased from a<br />

counterparty highly correlated to the reference obligation.<br />

Wrong-way risk exposures using credit derivatives are controlled by only buying protection from highly rated<br />

counterparties. These transactions are assessed by an authorised credit officer who has the right to decline any<br />

transaction where they feel there is an unacceptably high correlation between ability to perform under the trade<br />

and the performance of the underlying counterparty.<br />

Consequences of a downgrade in <strong>Westpac</strong>’s credit rating 1<br />

Where an outright threshold and minimum transfer amount are agreed, there will not be any impact on the amount<br />

of collateral posted by <strong>Westpac</strong> in the event of a credit rating downgrade. Where the threshold and minimum<br />

transfer amount are tiered according to credit rating, the impact of <strong>Westpac</strong> being downgraded below its current<br />

credit rating would be: for a one notch downgrade, postings of $367m; while for a two notch downgrade, postings<br />

would be $446m.<br />

1 Credit rating downgrade postings are cumulative.<br />

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