Who benefits?

Risk analysis

Last month's cover story in Risk highlighted concern about the use of derivatives by inexperienced German municipal finance departments. The article recalled the events of 1994, which was a tough year for derivatives professionals. After long boasting about the notional volume of contracts booked, many professionals retreated to describing themselves as mere financial managers. The catalyst for such atypical modesty was a string of well-publicised losses during the course of the year