Credit Safest Since ’08 as Clearinghouses Control Swaps
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Credit markets, which inflicted more than $2 trillion of losses and writedowns on the world’s biggest financial institutions from 2007 through 2009, are now seen as the safest since before the financial crisis.
The amount of money at risk in over-the-counter derivatives has fallen to the lowest level in three years, according to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. To close all trades, U.S. banks would need less than half the amount required at the worst of the downturn, the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington says.