New insight into credit swaps market -- to arrive Tues

[Alpharetta]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122546395430788065.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Starting in the coming week, the public will get a glimpse into a slice of the credit-default-swap market that hasn't been visible even to most investors that trade these insurance-like contracts.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. said it will publish weekly data showing the volume of outstanding credit-default swaps tied to many individual bonds and loans. Starting Tuesday, it will release information on its Web site for 1,000 debt issuers -- such as companies and countries -- that swaps have been written on.

The move is part of a broad effort by large banks and other market participants to increase transparency and reduce risk in the credit-default-swap market. A lack of information about swap volumes on individual bonds has contributed to investor worries about this market in recent weeks.
....

The DTCC's statistics already have helped dispel some fears surrounding credit-default swaps, such as the ability of financial institutions and hedge funds to make swap payouts tied to defaulted Lehman Brothers bonds. Estimates of the value of contracts on the failed investment bank ran as high as $400 billion. The DTCC's numbers showed that the volumes outstanding were closer to $70 billion and the amount that ultimately changed hands to settle the contracts was a fraction of that.

Write to Serena Ng at [e-mail] and Emily Barrett at [e-mail]

Interesting day to start publishing that data...

But definitely a good thing.