US banks boost sales of CDS, reversing two-year trend

Big US dealers got back into the business of selling credit default swaps (CDS) in the last quarter of 2018, with sold notionals outstanding growing for the first time in two years.

The aggregated effective notional amount of credit protection sold by the eight US global systemically important banks (G-Sibs) climbed $65.3 billion (2.4%) to $2.8 trillion in the three months to end-December. It was the first quarterly increase since public disclosure of these amounts began in the third quarter of