Mathematical finance and financial engineering have been rapidly expanding fields of science over the past three decades. The main reason behind this phenomenon has been the success of sophisticated quantitative methodolo gies in helping professionals manage financial risks. It is expected that the newly developed credit derivatives industry will also benefit from the use of advanced mathematics. This industry has grown around the need to handle credit risk, which is one of the fundamental factors of financial risk. In recent years, we have witnessed a tremendous acceleration in research...