Incredible credit

The credit derivatives story has dominated the markets over the past decade. Rachel Wolcott charts the emergence of this asset class, its development and the challenges it has overcome

Talk to some of the pioneers of the credit derivatives markets and they'll tell you credit is boring nowadays. For those working in the Wild West days of the mid-1990s, the now-commoditised market lacks the frisson of the early days. For these pioneers, the beauty of doing credit derivatives was working in a nascent market, like a scientist working in a new field, where they were creating products as they went along.

Early on, only a handful of trades would get transacted each month, then