Happier times for distressed assets?

Last year was all about cauterising losses to distressed structured credit assets. With firms reporting quarter-by-quarter writedowns amounting to billions of dollars, the main priority for financial institutions was to find a way to stem the bleeding.

Whether it be through outright asset sales, unwinds, government insurance schemes or other, more imaginative solutions, the focus was on amputation or immunisation – in some cases, whatever the cost. In recent months, however, this focus seems to