The real wordsTheory
Credit risk, twice defined
Section A's version: the risk of loss from a borrower's failure to meet obligations. It is the largest risk for banks, and the examples are loan defaults, counterparty failure and sovereign defaults.
Section B gives the Basel Committee's own wording, which is the one to quote: the potential that a bank borrower, or counterparty, will fail to meet its payment obligations regarding the terms agreed with the bank.
He also frames it against market risk as Credit VaR: the risk of adverse price movements due to credit events such as borrower defaults or rating downgrades.