Isda AGM: Sweden could pull back from swaps market

More bank credit rating downgrades could prompt Sweden’s Debt Office to pull out of the swaps market. That was the warning delivered today to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association meeting by Erik Thedéen, head of the debt management department at Sweden’s National Debt Office.

“If the rating agencies start to downgrade more European banks, then we would exit from the swaps market,” Thedéen said. “That’s why some kind of central clearing mechanism is important, because it makes central counterparty ratings less important.” The agency would also be likely to exit the market if swap spreads tightened dramatically from current levels, Thedéen warned.

Thedéen called for SwapClear, the central clearing house for swaps established by the London Clearing House in 1997, to open