Analysts and investors utilize the Merton model to understand how capable a company is at meeting financial obligations, servicing its debt, and weighing the general possibility that it will go into credit default.
[2] Under this model, the value of stock equity is modeled as a call option on the value of the whole company – i.e. including the liabilities – struck at the nominal value of the liabilities; and the equity market value thus depends on the volatility of the market value of the company assets.
"[4] Large financial institutions employ default models of both the structural and reduced-form types.
The practical implementation of Merton’s model has received much attention in recent years.
[5] One adaption is the KMV Model, now offered through Moody's Investors Service.