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Published November 4, 2008 at 6:56 PM
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 Investors and market watchers were given some clearer insight into the opaque world of credit default swaps Tuesday, as the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. released data on the $33.5 trillion derivative market for the first time.
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The data gave some rare insights into what companies and countries investors are hedging against. The entities that investors are most often buying protection against were Turkey, Brazil, Russia, GMAC LLC, Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. (See chart).
The most active buyers of swaps against default were financial services companies, followed by consumer services companies and consumer goods companies.
DTCC runs a central registry of credit swaps trades, decided to start releasing data on the market to calm fears by regulators that the size of the default swap market represents a systemic risk to the financial system. - George White
See DTCC data
Credit Default Swap Data - Week ended 10/31/2008 |
| The DTCC began releaseing data on what companies and countries investors are buying default protection against. Here's a list of the top 12 companies companies and five countries with the highest volume of contracts being sold to protect against their defaulting. |
| Company |
# of contracts sold |
| GMAC LLC |
13,602 |
| COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS, INC. |
11,919 |
| MERRILL LYNCH & CO., INC. |
9,931 |
| MORGAN STANLEY |
9,913 |
| THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC. |
9,793 |
| GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION |
9,683 |
| GENERAL ELECTRIC CAPITAL CORP. |
8,457 |
| CIT GROUP INC. |
8,180 |
| CENTEX CORPORATION |
8,076 |
| BEAR STEARNS COMPANIES INC. |
7,968 |
| FORD MOTOR COMPANY |
7,962 |
| LENNAR CORPORATION |
7,942 |
| Sovereign debt |
# of contracts sold |
| REPUBLIC OF TURKEY |
14,093 |
| FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL |
11,664 |
| RUSSIAN FEDERATION |
7,651 |
| ARGENTINE REPUBLIC |
5,535 |
| BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA |
5,127 |
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