Banks rigged €10 trillion derivatives market, Brussels says ($13 trillion)

EU Observer ^ | 02.07.13 @ 09:30 (July 2) | Benjamin Fox

[Olog-hai]

Thirteen big banks colluded to shut out competition from the multi-trillion euro derivatives market, according to an investigation by the European Commission.

The EU’s executive arm said that its investigation, which began in 2011, had uncovered anti-competitive practices during the 2008-9 financial crisis.

The commission investigation focuses on the credit default swap (CDS) market which allows banks and businesses to hedge against possible losses. However, more controversially, they were used by Goldman Sachs and others to speculate on the probability of a Greek debt crisis in 2010.

There are almost 2 million active CDS contracts with a joint notional amount of €10 trillion ($13 trillion) worldwide. …

[who_would_fardels_bear]

How do they know there are only 10 trillion worth of CDS's outstanding?

My understanding is that these investments didn't have to go through exchanges or be recorded in anyway.

Some estimates have the worth of outstanding CDS's at somewhere in the hundreds of trillions.

[Olog-hai]

And I’ve heard of numbers in the quadrillions. Imagine the insanity when the cockatrices come home to roost.

[montanajoe]

In my view the EU was/is a fiction created to give small investors/EU voters the false impression the European financial markets are not rigged like the financial markets in the rest of the world.

In ten years China will have the worlds manufacturing base, North America will have cheap energy. The Middle East will have far less influence due to the loss of oil revenue..Europe in general will reap the (benefits) of selling its soul to the Islamists ..