# Default Probability Implied in Bond Prices?

Say I am trying to find the probability of default on JP Morgan implied by the price of their fixed income assets. Can this be done? Are there any pitfalls to this approach? I have heard of this approach being used, but haven't been able to find many clear implementations in the literature. How can I estimate JP Morgan's default probability using their quoted bond prices?

Assume :

• $$R$$ a recovery rate,
• a continuous payment
• a flat intensity $$\lambda$$ i.e $$\mathbb{P}(\tau>t)=e^{-\lambda t}$$
• a flat discount rate $$r$$

## With bonds prices

Assuming

• JPM bond pays a coupon rate of $$\kappa$$
• the risk free bond (being US bonds) pays a coupon rate of $$\kappa^{risk~free}$$

you have :

$$\text{PV}(\text{Bond}_{JPM}) = \int_{0}^T \kappa e^{-(r+\lambda) t} dt + R\int_{0}^T\lambda e^{-(r+\lambda)t}dt + e^{(r+\lambda)T}$$

where as

$$\text{PV}(\text{Bond}_{risk~free})=\int_{0}^T \kappa^{risk~free} e^{-rt}dt + e^{-rT}$$

with this, you can find some $$r$$ and $$\lambda$$ solving above equations.

## With CDS

If you have the CDS of maturity $$T$$ on JPM, as a quoted spread $$s$$, you will have the following $$\lambda \approx \frac{s}{1-R}$$

## Be careful

As mentionned in other answers, recovery is the key.

One more thing that must be considered is the expected recovery rate. A model that ignores this rate is not tied to the real world. To estimate the probability of default, you would need to find the rate that needs to be applied to each time step/payment such that risk free discounting of payments yields the price of the bond. Specifically, Price = $\sum{P((}$No default in period $)* PV($payment at risk-free rate$))$. By taking the spread over the risk-free rate, recovery (inherent in the price of the bond) is ignored. You can get an estimate of the probability of default by dividing the spread by $1-recovery rate$. If there is are no coupon payments, these should be the same.