Dynamic Investment and Counterparty Risk

We introduce a dynamic optimization framework in which collateral is used to mitigate losses arising at counterparty's default. The investor faces two sources of risk: the default risk of the entity referencing the traded credit swap security, and counterparty risk generated from the default event of the trading counterparty. We show that the value function of the control problem coincides with the classical solution of a nonlinear dynamic programming equation. We provide an explicit characterization of the optimal investment strategy, and show that the investor does not trade if counterparty risk is sufficiently high. These findings suggest that moving credit swap trades into well-designed clearinghouses may stimulate economic activities.