The fuzzy approach for estimating the creditworthiness and credit risk of issuers of corporate bonds

The Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice, School of Expertness and Valuation, Okružní 517/10, 37001 České Budějovice, Czech Republic

^* Corresponding author: haskovas@post.cz

Abstract

The uncertainty in the financial market is often perceived as a risk of deviation from expected results. However, uncertainty is associated with vagueness in the sense of ambiguity or obscurity, which, unlike the risk, is not describable in the form of deterministic or stochastic models. Given the vagueness of the data entering the credit risk assessment models, the fuzzy decision-making process is introduced in the theoretical part and implemented in the application part as an effective alternative to standard models. The fuzzy approach is used to address the problem of the creditworthiness of the corporate bonds issuers and the credit risk. Data sources are of a qualitative and quantitative nature based on the ratings of Standard and Poor's and Moody's and financial indicators relevant for the creditor. The resulting creditworthiness and credit risk values rectify the credit ratings of rating agencies and are the original contribution to the topic solved. In conclusion, the impact of company ownership on the creditor´s subjective perception of creditworthiness, or respectively credit risk is outlined.