Saturday, May 22, 2010

Global OTC derivatives

The notional amount of outstanding over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives stood at $615 trillion in December 2009, up from $605 trillion six months earlier, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). That is still well below June 2008’s figure of $684 trillion, which was the highest figure since the BIS began to collect such data in 1998. The amount of credit-default swaps outstanding fell by almost 10% in the second half of 2009. Notional amounts are useful as a measure of market size. But the BIS reckons that gross market values provide a more accurate measure of the amounts that are actually at risk. The gross market values fell by 15% in the six months to December 2009, to $21.6 trillion. (more)

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