Japan Airlines bankruptcy highlights importance of collateral

The bankruptcy of Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) has highlighted to counterparties of Asian airlines the importance of securing collateral to back up their trades as well as assessing the credit health of their counterparties. On April 22, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital and 12 other dealers decided at an auction that JAL’s debt was worth 20% of face value following an International Swaps and Derivatives Association announcement on January 21 that the filing for bankruptcy protection by JAL on Januar