The Hottest Way for Banks to Get Risk Off Their Balance Sheets

Odd Lots

Synthetic risk transfers, in which banks purchase insurance-like protection on some of their loans, is a growing market on Wall Street, with billions worth of deals made in the US last year. But of course, anything with the words "synthetic" and "risk transfer" is probably going to remind people of the 2008 financial crisis, when securitizations of loans blew up and infected the banking system. So what exactly are these new trades? Why do banks want to do them and what are investors getting in return for taking on this risk? In this episode, we speak with Michael Shemi, North America structured credit leader at Guy Carpenter, about what these deals are, how they're structured, and what they say about bank capital and the wider financial system.
Mentioned in this episode:
One of the Hottest Trades on Wall Street, An Etymological Study
JPMorgan’s Risk Swap Ends Up at a Familiar Place: Rival Banks
‘Blind’ Bets on Bank Risk Transfers Have Never Been So Popular
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