Simply stated a credit-default swap, or CDS, is a way for the owner of an asset like a bond to buy an insurance policy to protect themselves in the event the issuer of that bond defaults. But, because the CDS market is unregulated, there is $60 trillion of so in these instruments that are not only purchased by actual owners of the debt, but by speculators betting that the issuing entity will indee...

The prospect of legislation which would force banks and dealers in Europe to clear their deals in the huge credit default swap market centrally moved closer, when a top EU regulator asked parliamentarians to back the move

CDS or credit default swaps, are used to protect, or hedge, the owners of bonds against the event of a default by the issuer! Credit default swaps or CDS have been used here in the past to look at how the global markets viewed the potential for an issuer of debt, such as Greece, to default on its obligation to pay. Like any insurance, the greater the perceived risk, the more expensive the CDS cont...

Sovereign debt issuers that is! And it is the marketplace that is usually the best arbiter of what is good and what is bad! In the instance of sovereign debt it's the major global players and institutions, in this case through the use of credit default swaps (CDS), that set the market odds a country is going to default on its obligations in some actual or technical way. CDS is a type of insur...

McDonalds is a safer credit-risk than the government of the United States, according to the Credit Default Swap (CDS) market last week. The cost of insuring against the default of US government debt was quoted at 0.28%, meaning that it...

The Obama administration's plan to regulate the $4,500bn private swaps market would give the two main market regulators a share of the duties by splitting oversight of credit default swaps, which were responsible for exacerbating the financial crisis

Lower Marsh, just beyond Waterloo Station from me, is one of my favourite London streets. It has carts loaded up with goodies from vans, and amongst these goodies are classical CDs sold by a bloke called Neil. A few yards due west from where Neil plies his trade, there is Gramex, a regular shop, which also sells an abundance of classical CDs. These CDs cost far less than downloads from the interne...

If the fact that finance is a social utility had been borne in mind, it is hard to believe that the trade in credit default swaps (CDS) would have been allowed to balloon. Excuse me, but why should my decision to buy (or to sell) a CDS be something which is supposed to create some social

Especially, speculation via the CDS market good says EU: You can see why the EU might have wanted to keep the report secret: it concludes that the sovereign CDS market is a force for good, and that curtailing it in any way is likely to be a bad idea. The full report is here. Eat

A US legislative plan to regulate the $600,000bn market in over-the-counter derivatives leaves open the question of whether to ban so-called "naked credit default swaps", which allow investors to speculate on the creditworthiness of companies