Sunday, November 20, 2011

98 per cent of credit derivatives are recorded by DTCC… right?

"It’s a claim that is often made by representatives of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and of The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation that 98 per cent of all credit derivatives outstanding are recorded in the latter organisation’s Trade Information Warehouse.
It’s a comfort to know that data on nearly all such derivatives are stored in a single place, where the public can glance into the normally opaque over-the-counter world and regulators can have a proper dig if they want to.
But wherever the “98 per cent” claim has been made, there have been understandable howls of “but how can they possibly know that if they don’t see the 2 per cent?! How do they know that’s the amount they are missing?”
Credit derivatives and people who are killed by coconuts
That 98 per cent has an air of what Joel Best called a “Legendary Number” about it. It’s a phrase used in his book More Damned Lies and Statistics, wherein this explanation is given for numbers of this type, using an example of 150 people being killed by coconuts each year:..."

at http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/11/18/754421/98-per-cent-of-credit-derivatives-are-recorded-by-dtcc-right/