Arising from financial institutions' need to hedge and diversify credit risk, credit derivatives have now become a major investment tool. Almost all credit derivatives take the form of the credit default swap, which transfers default risk from one party to another. Most credit default swaps were...

Close-out netting is a credit risk mitigation process that applies to over-the-counter derivative transactions between a defaulting party and a non-defaulting party. It also applies to repurchase agreements and clearing houses. The process consists of three steps: termination of obligations...

The empty creditor hypothesis suggests that bondholders and other creditors can use credit derivatives and other financial contracts to unbundle exposure to default from non-economic rights such as voting under debt agreements and in bankruptcy. According to the hypothesis, hedged creditors have...

Since 1970, the Fifth District has seen changes in state laws governing bank branching and interstate banking and in federal laws governing bank holding company activities. Now that branching within states has been liberalized in all Fifth District jurisdictions, the major field for future...