Dealers in the credit derivatives market are facing up to the fact that one of the biggest sources of their profits for years is going to change dramatically.
Regulatory pressure is no longer focused on the $27,000bn market for credit default swaps (CDS) – used to take positions on whether or not a company or country will default on its debts. The entire $600,000bn of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market is under the spotlight.
“All new products eventually stop being high-margin and become standardised, low-margin, and hopefully high-volume, businesses,” said an executive at one of the biggest derivatives dealers. “Credit derivatives are at this stage, and there is no point in resisting this any longer.”