Handbook of Asset and Liability Management: From models to optimal return strategies

Part I

Introduction

Le rêve est une seconde vie. (Gérard de Nerval)

To introduce Asset and Liability Management (ALM), this part will start with an interesting history of ALM activity. This history is important in order to understand why at the end of the 80s, banks and insurance companies decided to create ALM departments.

The next Part tries to give a brief overview of the existing ALM activity before exposing in detail what the assets and the liabilities of the balance sheet we will discuss throughout the book could be.