

For Release:
Immediately
Contact:
Judy Inosanto
DTCC
jinosanto@dtcc.com
+1 212.855.5424
New York, August 27, 2010 – The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced today that it has posted on its website, www.dtcc.com, information reflecting 6-month activity in the credit default swap (CDS) market based on data compiled from CDS trades registered in DTCC's subsidiary, The Warehouse Trust Company LLC ("Warehouse Trust"). The report provides greater depth to updated information to be used by market participants to assess liquidity for the largest corporate and sovereign CDS (single-named reference entities) positions and brings an added level of transparency to the market place.
This data informs market participants and regulators about trading volumes and the structure of the market to assist in their determination of which single reference entities might have sufficient liquidity to be cleared through a central counterparty (CCP). This effort is in keeping with commitments made by members of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives community (in their March 1, 2010 letter) to global regulators to increase the range of products eligible for clearing.
As of August 20, the total gross notional value of the approximately 2.3 million CDS contracts registered in the Warehouse Trust was roughly $25 trillion.
The information provided in the new public posting includes market activity from December 21, 2009 through June 20, 2010 for the top 1000 CDS single-named reference entities. The report follows an earlier nine-month market activity snapshot released on June 1, 2010, covering the period of June 20, 2009 to March 19, 2010, and has been expanded to include a breakdown of figures on standard and non-standard coupons as well as quarterly maturity levels for these counterparty transactions.
The data is being posted on DTCC's public website to ensure that other market participants, interested parties and the public have equal access to the information. View a detailed explanation of the data included in this report.
DTCC operates the centralized global repository and post-trade processing infrastructure for the worldwide OTC credit derivatives market through the Warehouse Trust, a New York limited liability trust company regulated by the New York State Banking Department and a member of the Federal Reserve System. Virtually all CDS trades in the global market are registered in this repository. Its customers include all major derivatives dealers and more than 1,700 buy-side firms and other market participants located in more than 50 countries.
Last month, DTCC announced that it had received approval from the UK Financial Services Authority to establish DTCC Derivatives Repository Ltd, which operates the OTC equity derivatives market's global reporting repository (EDRR). This new European DTCC subsidiary will also maintain global credit default swap data identical to that maintained in the U.S. based Warehouse Trust.
DTCC publicly releases weekly aggregate information on OTC credit derivatives, including open interest and turnover information for the top 1,000 names traded worldwide and CDS indices, which is available on its website at www.dtcc.com/products/derivserv/data/index.php. This information is posted Tuesday evenings after 5:00 p.m.
DTCC, through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments and over-the-counter derivatives. In addition, DTCC is a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with their distribution networks. DTCC's depository provides custody and asset servicing for more than 3.6 million securities issues from the United States and 121 other countries and territories, valued at US$33.9 trillion. In 2009, DTCC settled more than US$1.48 quadrillion in securities transactions. DTCC has operating facilities and data centers in multiple locations in the United States and overseas.