Introduction of Credit Default swaps for Corporate Bonds in India

By

Gagan Pareek

Sameer Sanghavi

Credit default swapCredit default swap

A credit default swap (CDS) is a swap contract in which the protection buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments (often referred to as the CDS "fee" or "spread") to the protection seller, in exchange, receives a payoff if a credit instrument (typically a bond or loan) experiences a credit event.

DescriptionDescription

Power Grid Bond = 10 Cr

Purchaser = Mr. X

Premium = 50 K

Contract for 2 Years

Bank = SBI

Case 1: After paying both Year 1 and Year 2 premium nothing happens to Power Grid and so the contract expires. SBI gains 1 Lac.

Case 2: After paying Yr 1 premium of 50K risk increases and company defaults. SBI gives Mr. X 10 Cr and takes bond.

• No need to own the asset• Seller need not be a regulated entity• CDS contracts are generally subject to mark-to-

market accounting, introducing income statement  and balance sheet volatility

• Insurance contracts require the disclosure of all known risks involved. CDSs have no such requirement. Most significantly, unlike insurance companies, sellers of CDSs are not required to maintain any capital reserves to guarantee payment of claim

Is CDS like Insurance ?Is CDS like Insurance ?

1) Used as a tool for hedging

2) If not controlled properly may cause unbridled speculation

2009 CDS Outstanding = $ 30.4 trillion

US Treasuries market = $ 4.4 trillion

Corporate bond market = $3.6 trillion

World's Richest person net worth = $53 billion

Apple Inc, cash pile = $46 billion

3) For sure, there isn't $30,400 billion of money out there that needs to be hedged, which is what the current size of CDS market is.

A loosely regulated credit derivatives market has allowed market participants to indulge in rampant speculation

Rampant SpeculationRampant Speculation

CDS In India CDS In India

• Was tried by Govt. in Yr 2003 (lack of Credit regulation) and 2007 (Sub Prime Crisis)

• On Aug 4th 2010 RBI came up with final draft • Sold by banks and finance companies with a net worth of

over Rs 500 Cr and bad loans of less than 3%. • Banks that intend to sell these swaps will need to have a

capital adequacy ratio of at least 12% while for non-banks, the bar has been set higher at 15 %, according to the draft norms. 

 

• There are a number of ways because of which Indian CDS differ from CDS which bought down AIG in US

1) The protection can be sold against risks of a single issue. In the case of AIG, the protection was provided for a mortgage-backed security representing thousands of unknown home loans. 

2) The protection can be bought by only those who actually hold the bonds. The global financial crisis was accentuated by the fact that many investors, who were not holding any bonds, bought protection betting on the default of a particular corporate.

3) RBI has severely restricted the number of parties that can offer or sell this product. 

How is Indian CDS different from Foreign CDS ?How is Indian CDS different from Foreign CDS ?

1) CDS shall be permitted only on corporate bonds as reference obligations and the reference entities shall be single legal resident entities.

2) Foreign banks and other lenders, which have the appraisal skills but not the resources to lend, can also gain by taking a credit exposure through CDS. The actual funding can come from some other bank which has the resources but does not want to take any credit risk.

3) CDS shall be permitted to be written on corporate bonds issued by Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of rated infrastructure companies

4) Users shall not, at any point of time, maintain naked CDS protection

Strict NormsStrict Norms

5) Physical delivery is mandated in case of credit events, , adding users are prohibited from selling CDS

6) Proposes “rigorous audit” to ensure that buyers of CDS have underlying exposure, and to make “physical settlement” mandatory for CDS buyers.

7) “All CDS trades shall have a RBI-regulated entity at least on one side,”

8) Market-makers cannot enter into CDS transactions without obtaining from the counterparty a copy of a resolution passed by their boards authorising it to transact in CDS

9) A Separate trading platform needs to be developed.

10) Related parties or banks and their subsidiaries cannot enter into CDS transactions between themselves

Strict NormsStrict Norms

Strict NormsStrict Norms

11) Protection sellers in the CDS market shall have in place internal limits on the gross amount of protection sold by them on a single entity as well as the aggregate of such individual gross positions.

Market Makers Users

Buy & Sell Buy

Commercial Banks ,PD, NBFC , MF

& Insurance

institutional investors , Listed

Corporate,

Thank You