Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Congressional research reportAug 15, 2011

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign

Credit Default Swap Market

-name redactedAnalyst in Economic Policy

-name redactedAnalyst in Financial Economics

August 15, 2011

Congressional Research Service

7-....

www.crs.gov

R41932

CRS Report for Congress

Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Summary

Paying the public debt is a central constitutional responsibility of Congress (Article I, Section 8).

U.S. Treasury securities, which represent nearly all federal debt, have long been considered riskfree assets. The size of federal deficits and the projected imbalance between federal revenues and

outlays, however, have raised concerns among some, including the rating agency Standard &

Poor’s (S&P), which downgraded the U.S. sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+ on August

5, 2011. S&P also cited “political brinksmanship” in debt ceiling negotiations as a factor, which

raised the issue of a hypothetical federal default. Prices for Treasuries suggest that financial

markets continue to consider federal debt instruments a safe haven despite the S&P downgrade.

Continued concerns about rising federal debt and the ability of policymakers to reach solutions to

fiscal challenges could raise borrowing costs and negatively affect capital markets.

A credit default swap (CDS) contract is a way to hedge or speculate on credit risk, including

sovereign credit risk. A CDS protection buyer, in exchange for an annual fee set by the market

and paid quarterly, can trade an asset issued by a “reference entity” (or a cash equivalent) for its

face value if a “credit event” occurs. A CDS buyer need not own or borrow an asset issued by the

reference entity, thus may hold a “naked CDS.” A committee of the derivatives trade organization,

the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), determines whether a credit event

has occurred, according to their interpretation of applicable guidelines. In general, failure to make

a timely payment usually constitutes a credit event, as does a repudiation of debts, and in some

cases, debt restructuring.

Some view CDS price trends for U.S. debt as an indicator of the market’s perception of the

federal government’s creditworthiness. The cost of buying CDS protection on federal debt for a

one-year duration has roughly doubled since the start of 2011. In mid-August 2011, U.S. CDSs

traded at about 55 basis points (bps; one-hundredths of 1%), after having risen to about 63 bps

after the S&P downgrade. U.S. CDS trading volume rose and prices hit a record high of about 82

bps in the week before President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 (S. 365; P.L. 11225) on August 2, 2011. The act included provisions to raise the debt limit and reduce deficits.

U.S. CDSs have traded in the same price range as Germany, which is far below sovereign CDS

prices for Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. For example, in mid-August 2011, Greek CDSs traded

around 1700 bps, Portuguese CDSs around 800 bps, and Irish CDSs around 700 bps. While the

federal government faces fiscal challenges, especially in the long term, markets seem to regard

fiscal stresses confronting some European governments as far more severe and immediate.

The U.S. CDS market is small and thinly traded, which may limit its reliability as a measure of

the federal government’s fiscal condition. CDSs may more usefully indicate sovereign default

risks for countries with more immediate fiscal challenges, such as Greece and Portugal, where

sovereign default risks may be more salient due to higher levels of fiscal stress, or for larger

European economies, such as Italy and Spain, which have recently come under increased fiscal

stress. Four Eurozone countries imposed certain restrictions on types of sovereign CDS trading in

August 2011. This report explains how the sovereign CDS market works and how such CDS price

trends may illuminate fiscal stresses facing sovereign governments. Although CDS prices may be

imperfect measures of the federal government’s fiscal condition, some investors may try to glean

information from those price trends, which could potentially affect U.S. debt markets in the

future. European calls for reform in sovereign CDS trading may also be of interest to U.S.

lawmakers. This report will be updated as events warrant.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Contents

Sovereign Default Risk.................................................................................................................... 1

What is a Credit Default Swap?....................................................................................................... 2

Naked CDSs .............................................................................................................................. 3

European Restrictions on Short-Selling and Naked CDSs.................................................. 4

SEC Restrictions on Short-Selling During 2008................................................................. 5

How Does the U.S. Sovereign CDS Market Work?......................................................................... 5

Pricing of U.S. CDS Contracts ........................................................................................................ 6

Differences Between Sovereign and Corporate CDSs .............................................................. 7

The Market for U.S. CDSs Is Thin............................................................................................ 8

Why is the U.S. CDS Market Thin? ........................................................................................ 10

What Constitutes a Credit Event?.................................................................................................. 11

Roles of Credit Rating Agencies and ISDA Differ.................................................................. 12

Credit Rating Agency Warnings and the S&P Downgrade...................................................... 13

Previous Credit Agency Warnings..................................................................................... 13

Criticisms of Credit Rating Agencies................................................................................ 14

Historical Precedents ............................................................................................................... 15

Information and Market Prices ...................................................................................................... 16

U.S. CDSs Versus Other Sovereign CDSs..................................................................................... 17

CDS Contracts and Net Notional Values Outstanding ............................................................ 18

CDS Transactions .................................................................................................................... 18

Market Context........................................................................................................................ 21

Is the United States Different?................................................................................................. 22

The Debt Limit and Long Term Fiscal Challenges........................................................................ 22

Figures

Figure 1. U.S. Credit Default Swap Price and Volume Trends........................................................ 7

Figure 2. Distribution of CDS Trading Volumes ............................................................................. 9

Figure 3. Distribution of Gross Notional Value ($ Equivalent, billions) ......................................... 9

Figure A-1.Sovereign and Bank CDS Premiums in Selected Countries........................................ 24

Tables

Table 1. Outstanding Sovereign CDS for Week Ended July 8, 2011............................................. 19

Table 2. CDS Transactions by Most Actively Traded Reference Entities...................................... 20

Appendixes

Appendix. CDS Price Trends for Selected Countries .................................................................... 24

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Contacts

Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 25

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Sovereign Default Risk

Concerns about developed-country sovereign default risks have grown in the aftermath of the

2007-2008 financial crisis and have intensified in the past year as some Eurozone countries have

been facing several fiscal pressures. A sovereign default occurs when a sovereign government is

unable to meet its financial obligations. Although U.S. Treasury securities, which represent nearly

all federal debt, have long been considered risk-free assets, the magnitude of federal deficits and

the projected imbalance between federal revenues and outlays has raised concerns among some.1

The size of federal deficits and the projected imbalance between federal revenues and outlays

have raised concerns among some, including the rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P), which

downgraded the U.S. sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+ on August 5, 2011. S&P also

cited as a factor “political brinksmanship” in debt ceiling negotiations, which raised the spectre

that the United States might default on some of its obligations if the debt limit were not raised

before Treasury’s projected deadline of August 2. Prices for Treasuries suggest that financial

markets continue to consider federal debt instruments a safe haven despite the S&P downgrade.

Continued concerns about rising federal debt and the ability of policymakers to reach solutions to

fiscal challenges could raise borrowing costs and negatively affect capital markets.

Many believe that risks were underestimated before the 2007-2008 financial crisis.2 Some

macroeconomists spoke of a “Great Moderation,” reflected in reduced volatility of real economic

output, which was seen to have resulted from improved monetary policy, more flexible labor

markets, resurgent economic growth, and greater sophistication of financial markets.3 In

hindsight, many financial risks appear to have been underappreciated. More recent analysis and

commentary has put greater emphasis on managing and understanding risks. For example, one

prominent macroeconomist noted that “there is no such thing as an absolutely safe sovereign.”4 A

former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a coauthor note that from a

broad historical perspective, sovereign defaults have not been uncommon.5

Financial analysts use many indicators to evaluate various risks associated with holding

government securities. Some risks, such as interest rate risks, are generated by wider market

trends. Sovereign default risks may depend on macroeconomic conditions, spending and revenue

policies, as well as political and international factors. Some analysts use market prices for

derivative financial instruments known as credit default swaps (CDSs) to track sovereign default

risks.6

For details of the structure of the federal debt, see CRS Report R41815, Overview of the Federal Debt, by (name reda

cted).

Joseph Cassano, former head of AIG’s Financial Products division, reportedly told investors in August 2007 that “(i)t

is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing

$1 in any of those [CDS] transactions.” Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big to Fail (New York: Viking, 2009), pp. 157-158.

Sean D. Campbell, “Macroeconomic Volatility, Predictability, and Uncertainty in the Great Moderation,”Journal of

Business and Economic Statistics vol. 25, issue 2 (April 1, 2007), pp. 191-200.

Willem Buiter, “Chief Economist Essay: Sovereign Debt Crisis Update,” Global Economic Outlook and Strategy,

Citibank, 29 November 2010, available at http://www.nber.org/~wbuiter/sdcupdate.pdf.

See Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Princeton

University Press, 2009).

The value of a derivative depends on, or derives from, the value of other, underlying assets or indices.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Although CDS prices may indicate market assessments of default probabilities, the market for

U.S. CDSs is small and thinly traded, which reduces its reliability as a measure of the federal

government’s fiscal condition.

What is a Credit Default Swap?

A credit default swap is a financial contract in which one party promises to pay another party if a

third party defaults. The third party, in this case, is known as the “reference entity.” In the case of

a CDS on U.S. sovereign debt, the U.S. government is the reference entity.

A typical CDS contract on sovereign debt specifies that a buyer, in exchange for an annual fee set

by the market and paid quarterly, obtains from a seller specified protection against default and

broadly similar events affecting securities issued by a country (i.e., the reference entity). For

“cash-settlement” CDS contracts, the buyer would receive a cash payment equal to the difference

between the fair market value of the specified asset and its par value if a “credit event” occurs.7

Other CDS contracts, known as physical settlement CDSs, require the buyer to surrender the asset

in return for a payment equal to its par value if a credit event occurs. Par, or face value, is the

value of a bond at maturity. For widely held CDSs, recovery values are typically determined

through an auction-based procedure specified by the International Swaps and Derivatives

Association (ISDA).

CDSs are part of a larger class of financial instruments known as credit derivatives, which allow

investors to hedge against or speculate that risks that a company or country will fail to meet its

financial obligations may rise or fall. The market for credit derivatives has grown enormously

since the mid-1990s.8

In legal terms, a CDS is a bilateral derivative contract traded in the over-the-counter (OTC)

derivatives market. It transfers from one party to another the risk that a specified reference entity

will experience a “credit event.”9 The CDS protection buyer typically pays a periodic fee to a

protection seller in return for compensation if a reference entity experiences a credit event. The

reference entity, such as the U.S. government in this case, is almost never a party to the credit

default swap contract.

In a typical sovereign CDS, such as for the United States, credit events include failure to pay,

repudiation or moratorium on debt, and certain debt restructurings.10 Failure to pay means a

failure by the reference entity (in this case, the U.S. government) to make any payments due on

its obligations.11 For U.S. sovereign CDS, there is an automatic grace period of three business

days after the date of a missed payment before a “credit event” is triggered for the purpose of

David Mengle, ISDA Head of Research, “Credit Derivatives: An Overview,” paper presented at the 2007 Financial

Markets Conference, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, May 15, 2007, available at http://www.frbatlanta.org/news/

conferen/07fmc/07FMC_mengle.pdf.

Ibid.

Moorad Choudhry, “Credit Derivatives,” Handbook of Financial Instruments, F. Fabozzi ed., (NJ: Wiley and Sons),

2002, pp. 790-797.

International Swaps and Derivatives Association, CDS on US Sovereign Debt Q&A, July 27, 2011,

http://www2.isda.org/news/cds-on-us-sovereign-debt-qampa.

Ibid.

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CDS.12 This is true for the purpose of CDS payments even if the underlying debt instrument does

not specify any grace period, or specifies a shorter grace period.13 Also, under standard CDS

contracts for sovereign U.S. debt, a credit rating agency’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating

does not constitute a “credit event.”14

The maturity of the credit default swap need not match the maturity of an asset issued by the

reference entity—that is, a 10-year bond may be protected by a CDS that provides protection for

only one year. Five-year CDSs have been the most widely traded, although CDS with shorter and

longer maturities—up to 10 years—are also traded.15 Some observers find it helpful to think of a

CDS as a tradable form of insurance, whereas others find it more analogous to a put option on a

debt instrument.16 A put option gives its holder the right to sell a specified asset at a given price

by a set date. Someone who thinks an asset will fall in price would value such an option.

Banks can use CDSs to offload risks tied to certain assets while retaining legal ownership of the

assets. CDS markets enable investors with negative information unrecognized by other traders to

exploit that information, which could help discourage the emergence of pricing bubbles in asset

markets, or could help limit their duration. Sovereign CDSs can provide a convenient way for

major financial institutions to take positions or hedge risks associated with a region or a national

economy. Some, however, have contended that CDS markets could also destabilize asset markets

or financial institutions in some situations.17

Naked CDSs

An investor can buy a CDS without owning or ever having owned or borrowed debt of the

reference entity. That is, the owner of a CDS will be eligible for compensation if a credit event

occurs, even if he or she realized no actual loss. An investor holding a CDS while not owning or

borrowing the underlying bond is often said to possess a “naked CDS.” For example, an investor

might buy a CDS on a foreign bank’s debt in order to hedge against wider financial risks in the

bank’s home country or region.18 Issues related to naked CDSs are similar to issues raised by

short selling of assets.19 A short seller contracts to sell an asset at a future date, typically in

expectation of a fall in the asset’s price. If the price does fall, the short seller can then fulfill the

contact by buying the asset at a reduced price, thus collecting a profit.

Ibid.

Mengle, op. cit., p. 12.

Legally, however, CDS are distinct from insurance contracts. This is partly because the CDS buyer or seller need not

own the underlying bond to buy or sell CDS on it. Thus, unlike insurance policyholders, a CDS holder need not suffer

an actual loss.

Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital have both used CDSs and credit

derivatives extensively and both have reportedly raised cautions about CDSs. Harry Sender, “Greenlight Founder Calls

for CDS Ban,” Financial Times, November 9, 2007. Andrew Frye, Bloomberg, “Buffett’s Berkshire Profit Triples on

Stock, Bond Derivatives,” November 7, 2009, available at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&

sid=aZ7k46r1Ylqs&pos=3.

Gary Gorton, “Are Naked Credit Default Swaps Too Revealing?” Investment Dealers’ Digest, June 4, 2010,

available at http://faculty.som.yale.edu/garygorton/documents/NakedCDSTooRevealingIDDJune2010.pdf.

For details, see CRS Report RS22099, Regulation of Naked Short Selling, by (name redacted).

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Opponents of such naked CDSs charge that heavy buying of CDS protection, without owning an

underlying bond, may contribute to credit-related market panics by fueling market perceptions

that an entity is uncreditworthy. They contend that short selling and related transactions may

restrict credit available to affected issuers or raise borrowing costs.20

Others counter that trading in such naked CDSs simply allows traders to arrive at prices for credit

protection that better reflect the actual credit risks for the reference entity. Some contend that

CDS prices make differences in risk more transparent, which may increase borrowing costs for

entities perceived to pose greater default risks, but may give investors a way to hedge against

those risks.21

Public interests, in some cases, may be promoted by restricting the creation or publication of

certain types of information. Restrictions on genetic testing, for example, may help maintain the

viability of health insurance markets by preventing the splintering of risk pooling arrangements.

Such restrictions can help societies spread costs of rare genetic conditions widely, lessening

financial burdens on affected individuals, who had no control over their genes. Whether similar

restrictions should be implemented to assist sovereigns or corporations under financial pressure,

which presumably controlled some aspects of their material conditions, is less clear.

European Restrictions on Short-Selling and Naked CDSs

Some lawmakers in the United States and European Union (EU) have questioned whether

widespread trading of naked CDSs could destabilize the market for a country’s debt, particularly

for certain sovereign debt under distress, such as that of Greece; or whether naked CDS trades

might create destabilizing ripple effects in other markets as well.22 On July 4, 2011, the European

Parliament discussed restrictions on CDSs and short selling. On July 5, the European Parliament

voted to adopt a report calling for short-selling restrictions, but a final vote was postponed to

allow time for negotiation with the Council of the European Union (formerly the Council of

Ministers), which represents governments of member states.23

On August 11, 2011, France, Italy, Spain, and Belgium adopted temporary restrictions on short

selling of financial stocks.24 On the same day, regulators in Turkey reportedly raised margin

For a recent description of how this scenario might work, see Alasdair Reilly and Tessa Walsh, “Focus on French

Banks’ Lending Appetite as CDS Soar,” Reuters, August 10, 2011, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/

08/10/french-bank-lending-idUSL6E7JA1Z220110810. The article noted that a sharp rise in CDS spreads on three

major French banks on August 10, 2011 would likely raise borrowing costs for those banks, making it harder for them

to lend to companies at low rates.

Gary Gorton, “Are Naked Credit Default Swaps Too Revealing?” Investment Dealers’ Digest, June 4, 2010,

available at http://faculty.som.yale.edu/garygorton/documents/NakedCDSTooRevealingIDDJune2010.pdf.

See e.g., “EU Sees Delays in Derivatives, Short-Selling Rules,” Reuters, July 4, 2011, accessible at

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/eu-derivatives-idUSL6E7HU0WM20110704. Some EU lawmakers

reportedly said that pressure from hedge funds and other investors on Greek debt in 2010, ahead of an EU bailout,

showed the need for a ban on naked CDSs.

European Commission, “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of Europe on Short

Selling and Certain Aspects of Credit Default Swaps” COM(2010) 482, available at http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/

detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=199648; Bloomberg News, Naked CDS Curbs on Sovereign Debt Sought by

EU Lawmakers,” July 5, 2011; BBC News, “MEPs Clash Over Regulation of Short-Selling,” available at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/europe/newsid_9464000/9464406.stm.

Brooke Masters, “EU Splits on Short-Selling Ban,” Financial Times, August 12, 2011, p. 1.

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requirements on short selling.25 Greece imposed short sale restrictions on August 8.26 Several

other European governments have imposed reporting and other requirements on short selling,

naked CDS holdings, and related transactions.27

SEC Restrictions on Short-Selling During 2008

At present, short selling and naked CDSs are legal under federal law, although certain short

selling restrictions on financial institutions were temporarily imposed in 2008.28 U.S. Securities

and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its chairman Christopher Cox banned stock short sales of

securities of mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and primary dealers at commercial

and investment banks from July 21 through July 29, 2008.29 SEC also banned short selling for

stocks in 799 financial institutions between September 19, 2008, and October 3, 2008.30

How Does the U.S. Sovereign CDS Market Work?

When a buyer purchases CDS protection on U.S. Treasury securities (often termed “Treasuries”),

the seller of the CDS, in exchange for a stream of payments, essentially agrees to pay the CDS

buyer in case of a credit event that affects U.S. Treasury securities. For many years, U.S. Treasury

securities have been considered assets basically free of default risks. The emergence of a market

in credit default swaps for U.S. government securities, and the growth in volume for this market

in 2011, suggests that some investors believed a small but non-zero default risk exists. Investor

concerns became more acute during the latter stages of the 2011 debt limit discussions. As noted

above, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the United States’ sovereign credit rating from

AAA to AA+ on August 5, 2011. Prices for Treasuries suggest that financial markets continue to

consider federal debt instruments a safe haven despite the S&P downgrade.

Some financial market and federal budget analysts view price trends of U.S. CDSs as an indicator

of the risks of a sovereign default by the federal government. CDSs may help insure against

Reuters, “Turkey to Penalise Short-Selling of Stocks,” Business Law Currents, August 11, 2011.

Capital Market Commission (Greece), Decision on Short Selling of Shares Listed on Athens Exchange,

14/593/8.8.2011, available at http://www.esma.europa.eu/popup2.php?id=7696. Updates to this document reflect recent

measures noted above.

European Securities and Markets Authority, “Measures Adopted by Competent Authorities on Short Selling,”

ESMA/2011/39a, February 9, 2011, available at http://www.esma.europa.eu/popup2.php?id=7696.

News reports in July 2011 suggest that Italian financial authorities were considering a ban on naked short-selling,

which refers to selling an asset short without owning or borrowing the underlying asset. Selling an asset short means

one is engaging in a derivatives bet that the price of the underlying asset will fall. See Lorenzo Totaro and Elisa

Martinuzzi, “Italy Orders Short-Sale Disclosures After Market Falls,” Bloomberg News, July 11, 2011, available at

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-07-11/italy-orders-short-sale-disclosures-after-market-falls.html.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “Emergency Order Pursuant to Section 12(K)(2) of the Securities

Exchange Act of 1934 Taking Temporary Action to Respond to Market Developments,” Release No. 58166, July 15,

2008, available at http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2008/34-58166.pdf.

For details, see CRS Report RL34519, The Uptick Rule: SEC Limit on Short Selling Reconsidered, by (name redacted);

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “Emergency Order Pursuant To Section 12(K)(2) of the Securities

Exchange Act of 1934 Taking Temporary Action to Respond to Market Developments,” Release No. 34-58592,

September 18, 2008, available at http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2008/34-58592.pdf.

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default or other events that may damage the interests of those holding claims on the U.S.

government.31

Pricing of U.S. CDS Contracts

Although prices of U.S. sovereign CDSs remain low compared with CDS prices of fiscally

distressed Eurozone countries, five-year U.S. CDS prices have risen since early 2009, as shown in

Figure 1. For instance, The Economist noted that U.S. CDS prices rose from about 20 basis

points in 2010, to more than 40 basis points in mid-2011, as debt ceiling discussions in Congress

remained unresolved.32 Large changes in U.S. CDS rates in 2008 appeared to track events that

could have affected the long-term fiscal situation of the U.S. government, such as the failure of

IndyMac Bank, the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, and AIG’s attempts to negotiate a bridge loan

from the Federal Reserve.33

Prices for five-year CDSs on federal debt are currently about 55 basis points (bps), in the range of

Germany and major corporations such as Target and Walmart.34 A CDS contract with a notional

value of $1 million and a price of 55 bps would require payment of $5,500 over the course of a

year. Notional value represents the par amount of credit protection bought or sold.35 The net

notional value for U.S. CDSs, which excludes amounts from offsetting positions, totaled $4.6

billion for the week ending July 8, 2011. At a price of 55 bps, insuring $4.6 billion of U.S.

Treasuries would then cost a total of $25.3 million, a small amount by the standard of global

financial markets. The Depository Trust and Clearinghouse Corporation (DTCC) reported only

1,004 U.S. CDSs for the week ending July 8, 2011.36

CDSs do not provide insurance against risks associated with interest rate fluctuations, which holders of fixed income

securities, such as Treasuries, normally accept and which can be hedged against using other financial instruments.

“The Mother of All Tail Risks,” The Economist, June 23, 2011. This article is the source for Figure 1.

Christopher Neely, “Markets Worry More about Sovereign Debt,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, International

Economic Trends, February 2009, available at http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/iet/20090201/cover.pdf.

A basis point (bp) is one-hundredth of a percent. Many CDS volumes can be found at the Depository Trust and

Clearing Corporation website: http://www.dtcc.com. Listings for federal debt CDSs can be found under “United States

of America.”

DTCC, Explanation of Trade Information Warehouse Data, May 24, 2011, available at http://www.dtcc.com/

downloads/products/derivserv/tiw_data_explanation.pdf.

Firms’ net exposures are partially offset by the recovery value of the underlying bonds.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Figure 1. U.S. Credit Default Swap Price and

Volume Trends

November 2008-June 2011

The number of CDSs traded on U.S.

sovereign debt—though traded on a

small and illiquid market—has been

reported in the financial press to have

grown noticeably, particularly since

around mid-May, as the U.S. debt ceiling

debate has intensified.37 Figure 1 shows

trends in U.S. CDS prices and number of

contracts since late 2008.

Source: Economist, June 23, 2011, based on Markit and

DTCC data.

Differences Between Sovereign and Corporate CDSs

CDSs for corporate and sovereigns differ in important ways that reflect differences between

sovereign and corporate default risks. For one thing, legal barriers may make it difficult for

creditors to successfully sue governments. For example, the doctrine of sovereign immunity, a

well-established tenet of Anglo-American jurisprudence, may impose limits on a creditor’s ability

to seek redress through the courts. In addition, a 1937 Supreme Court decision made it difficult

for federal debt holders to seek interest payments as damages, even in cases of default.38 By

contrast, holders of corporate debt may be able to force a defaulting corporation into bankruptcy

or may have other forms of recourse through the judicial system. A desire by governments to

borrow from financial markets in the future may provide a more consistent incentive for

repayment. In terms of CDSs, sovereign and corporate debt restructurings may be treated

differently under ISDA protocol for the purpose of determining CDS payments.39 This could

further complicate sovereign CDS holders’ efforts to compel payment.

See e.g., Anjail Cordeiro, “Brazil One-Year CDS Below U.S. on Debt Ceiling, Market Jitters,” Wall Street Journal,

June 15, 2011, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110615-711546.html.

Smyth v. United States, 302 U.S. 329 at 353 (1937).

For corporations, failure to pay, bankruptcy, and restructuring are considered credit events. For sovereigns, failure to

pay, debt repudiation or moratorium, or restructuring are credit events.

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Academics have found that sovereigns under severe fiscal stress typically restructure their

obligations, rather than declare outright default.40 Sovereigns in some cases have used changes in

laws, taxes, and monetary systems to alter their financial obligations.41

The Market for U.S. CDSs Is Thin

The CDS market for U.S. Treasuries, however, is relatively small and illiquid. A relatively small

number of CDS contracts, according to available data, trade on U.S. sovereign debt, compared to

the amount of U.S. debt issued.

For most reference entities, however, the number of CDS contracts traded in a typical week is less

than 50, as shown in Figure 2. During the week ending July 8, 2011, CDS trading volumes only

exceeded 200 for Spain (341) and Italy (475). Similarly, for most reference entities the gross

notional value of CDS contracts traded in a typical week is less than $250 million, as shown in

Figure 3. For a few reference entities, however, gross notional value traded may be much higher.

The number of CDS outstanding contracts on U.S. debt is small compared to some other

sovereigns, such as Italy and Portugal. As noted above, only 1,004 U.S. CDS contracts, with a

total net notional value of $4.6 billion, were outstanding as of July 8, 2011, according to DTCC.42

By contrast, on that date the total federal debt held by the public was $9.75 trillion—an amount

roughly 2000 times that of the associated U.S. CDS market.

Unlike certain financial asset markets, no trader in CDS markets has market-maker

responsibilities. In certain markets, designated traders known as market makers are obligated to

post buy and sell prices for a specific stock or contract. The lack of a market maker in a thinly

traded market such as U.S. CDSs may reduce liquidity. Thus, finding buyers and sellers for U.S.

CDSs at reported prices could be harder than in more liquid derivatives markets.

Darrell Duffie, Lasse Heje Pedersen, Kenneth J. Singleton, “Modeling Sovereign Yield Spreads: A Case Study of

Russian Debt,” Journal of Finance, vol. 58, no. 1 (February 2003), p. 122.

For details, see Federico Sturzenegger and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, “Haircuts: Estimating Investor Losses in Sovereign

Debt Restructurings, 1998–2005” IMF working paper WP/05/137, July 2005, available at http://www.imf.org/external/

pubs/ft/wp/2005/wp05137.pdf; and Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, “The Forgotten History of Domestic

Debt,” Economic Journal, vol. 121 (2011), pp. 319-350.

Depository Trust and Clearinghouse Corporation website (www.dtcc.com), accessed July 18, 2011. For the week

ended July 8, 2011, by comparison, DTCC reported 8,336 sovereign CDS contracts outstanding for Italy. Volumes for

several emerging market CDSs were even higher. See Table 1 in this report for additional information. Most CDSs

transactions that are reported in some way are reported to DTCC.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Figure 2. Distribution of CDS Trading Volumes

Trades on Single Reference Entities As Reported to DTCC

Source: CRS, based on analysis of DTCC data.

Notes: Width of histogram bars is 10 contracts. Each short vertical line under histogram represents one

reference entity.

Figure 3. Distribution of Gross Notional Value ($ Equivalent, billions)

Trading on Single Name Reference Entities As Reported to DTCC

Source: CRS, based on DTCC data.

Notes: Width of histogram bars is $250 million. Each short vertical line under histogram represents one

reference entity.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Some analysts, rather than focusing on U.S. CDS price trends, prefer to track a wider set of

measures that might indicate changes in relative riskiness, such as spreads with German bonds,

spreads between short-term and long-term Treasury bonds, and other comparisons. Those

measures arguably also have shortcomings. Some ratings agencies also rely on their evaluation of

how well political processes appear to be addressing fundamental fiscal challenges.43

Why is the U.S. CDS Market Thin?

The lack of liquidity in this market means that some financial institutions may be reluctant to

offer U.S. CDSs because of the small size of that market and the analytic challenges in estimating

the probabilities of a credit event affecting Treasury securities. In such a market, buyers who wish

to purchase U.S. CDSs may pay a premium reflecting the costs of offering low-volume contracts.

If so, calculations of the probability of a credit event affecting Treasury securities based on U.S.

CDS prices are likely to be imprecise. Moreover, investors holding U.S. CDSs could have

different business models than investors holding sovereign CDSs that trade more widely, which

could complicate imputations of relative risk.

Supply of U.S. CDSs is limited because U.S. banks or banks with strong ties to U.S. financial

markets might not be credible counterparties in the event of a major credit event. Were a serious

Treasury default to occur, major U.S. banks could face severe deterioration in their capital bases,

leaving their ability to make CDS payments in doubt. Thus, counterparty risk may make many

U.S. banks less attractive suppliers of U.S. CDSs.

Demand for CDS on emerging market (EM) government debt is greater than for CDS on

Treasuries and the debt of most developed country governments. Borrowing costs for banks are

typically above borrowing costs for the U.S. Treasury, Germany, and most developed countries,

but many major banks can borrow more cheaply than several EM governments. Thus, borrowing

to hold Treasuries is not a profitable strategy for banks. Borrowing to hold EM government debt

whose yields exceed banks’ borrowing costs, however, could be a profitable strategy. Banks

holding EM debt may then want to hedge against EM default risks by holding matching CDSs.

EM debt yields, even subtracting CDS costs, may offer banks an attractive risk-adjusted rate of

return. Thus, demand for CDSs for EM government debt is much stronger than for CDSs on

developed-country government debt.

Banks face capital regulations that may encourage purchase of CDSs for other types of assets, but

those regulations provide little incentive to buy CDSs on U.S. Treasuries. Large banks subject to

Basel II regulations face capital requirements that include risk-based adjustments to asset

holdings. Bank regulators also evaluate the riskiness of asset holdings when evaluating the

adequacy of a bank’s capital. In general, holdings of riskier assets are given less weight in the

calculation of a bank’s capital reserves. During the run-up in housing prices from about 2000 to

2007, some banks met regulatory capital requirements by purchasing CDS protection on their

mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and other assets. Basel II, however, puts a 0% standard risk

weight on banks’ holdings of debt issued by domestic and foreign sovereigns with credit ratings

of AA- or higher.44 Because Treasury debt is sufficiently highly rated, purchasing CDS protection

on Treasuries would not help banks meet minimum capital requirements.45

Ibid, p. 11.

Risk weights are higher for debt of lower-rated domestic and foreign sovereigns (20% for A-rated entities, 50% for

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

What Constitutes a Credit Event?

What would constitute a “credit event” for a U.S. CDS holder is important, as it determines

whether, and when, a buyer of CDS protection is paid by the CDS seller. Committees organized

by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) determine when a credit event

has occurred.46 Although failure to make a timely interest payment generally would constitute a

credit event, several other situations could also trigger a credit event. Typical credit events

include failure to pay, bankruptcy, restructuring, repudiation, or a moratorium.

If a credit event occurs and if fair market value of the asset is below the par value, the resulting

gap as a percentage of par value is known as the recovery rate. A credit event might occur that

would leave an asset’s value at or above par, implying a recovery rate of 100%, in which case the

CDS buyer would receive nothing. For example, many Treasury securities trade well above par

because interest rates have fallen since they were issued. Were a credit event to occur that left

such securities above par, CDS holders would receive zero payment.

For any sovereign CDS that used the standard ISDA documentation, the ISDA committee, at the

request of a CDS buyer or seller, would determine whether a particular event would constitute a

triggering credit event according to terms of the relevant ISDA documentation.47 The ISDA

standard contract provides detailed definitions of what would constitute a credit event, which the

ISDA committee would then apply and interpret in a given case. Those entering into such

contracts generally agree to be bound by the decisions reached by this ISDA committee. In a

typical sovereign CDS, such as for the United States, credit events include failure to pay,

repudiation or moratorium on debt, and certain debt restructurings.48

Failure to pay means a failure by the reference entity (in this case, the U.S. government), to make

any payments due on its obligations.49 For U.S. sovereign CDS, there is an automatic grace period

of three business days after the date of a missed payment before a “credit event” is triggered for

the purposes of CDS.50 This is true for the purposes of CDS payments even if the underlying debt

instrument does not specify any grace period, or specifies a shorter grace period.51 Also, under

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BBB-rated entities, 100% for B- to BB-rated entities). See Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, International

Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards: A Revised Framework—Comprehensive Version,” Basel,

June 2006.

Buiter (2010, op. cit.) argues that the zero risk weight on highly rated sovereigns should be changed. For a summary

of policy decisions during the development of the Basel II framework, see Daniel K. Tarullo, Banking on Basel: The

Future of International Financial Regulation (Washington, DC: Peterson Institute, 2008), pp. 97-98.

A more detailed description can be found on the ISDA website: http://www.isda.org/credit.

A CDS contract might also contain amendments or modifications of the standard ISDA documentation.

Documentation may be specified for countries in a particular region. For example, Greek CDSs are governed by the

Standard Western European Sovereign (SWES) CDS contracts. See Barclay’s Capital Research, “Difficult Economic

Realities are Becoming Increasingly Apparent,” Credit Alpha brief, June 3, 2011.

International Swaps and Derivatives Association, CDS on US Sovereign Debt Q&A, July 27, 2011,

http://www2.isda.org/news/cds-on-us-sovereign-debt-qampa.

Ibid.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

standard CDS contracts for sovereign US debt, a credit rating agency’s downgrade of the U.S.

credit rating does not constitute a “credit event”.52

In a June 28, 2011, letter to the Financial Times, Robert Pickel, the executive vice chairman of

ISDA, addressed concerns regarding what would constitute a credit event for the purposes of

Greek sovereign CDSs. He noted that the committee would review any potential credit event,

analyze ISDA’s CDS definitions of a credit event, and then vote on whether the potential event

was covered under the definitions.53 He noted that, in the case of Greece, “it is well understood in

the CDS market that certain types of restructuring will not trigger a credit event.”54 Jean-Claude

Juncker, head of a Eurozone council of finance ministers, was quoted as saying in May 2011 that

a “kind of reprofiling” of Greek debt could be under consideration.55 For some, this appeared to

reflect an attempt to avoid outcomes that would trigger CDS payments.56

On July 21, 2011, the European Council announced a framework, which emphasized voluntary

measures, to support Greece.57 The framework included a call for further austerity measures by

the Greek government, a stretchout of Greek government bond obligations, EU support for

private sector bonds, and in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), support

totaling 109 billion euros. Implementation of those measures would require further action by

member states and EU institutions. One prominent financial journalist termed the arrangement a

“bailout” and “a kind of default.”58 As of this writing, no query has been filed with ISDA to

determine whether this support package constitutes a credit event.59

Roles of Credit Rating Agencies and ISDA Differ

Credit rating agency statements and rating decisions are not considered “credit events” for the

purposes of CDS payments, under the standard CDS agreements.60 Also, whereas some credit

rating agencies normally consider certain types of restructuring as “defaults,” the ISDA definition

of restructuring is somewhat broader. Thus, an ISDA committee might not declare a credit event

to have occurred, even if that event affected a security’s credit rating.61 Some credit rating

Ibid.

Robert Pickel, “Fair and Well-Tested Process for Determining Credit Events,” Financial Times, June 28, 2011.

Ibid.

“Eurozone Talks in Brussels Focus on Greece,” BBC Business News, 17 May, 2011, available at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13420864.

For details, see Barclay’s Capital Research, “Difficult Economic Realities are Becoming Increasingly Apparent,”

Credit Alpha brief, June 3, 2011.

Council of The European Union, “Statement By The Heads of State or Government of The Euro Area and EU

Institutions,” Brussels, July 21, 2011, available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/

ec/123978.pdf. As noted above, the Council represents governments of member states.

Relix Salmon, “Greece Defaults,” July 21, 2011, Reuters, blog, available at http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/

2011/07/21/greece-defaults/.

A query had been submitted in March after an IMF support package for Ireland was announced. The relevant

determinations committee concluded that no credit event had occurred. See the EMEA Determinations Committee

Decision dated March 15, 2011, available at http://www.isda.org/dc/docs/

EMEA_Determinations_Committee_Decision_15032011.pdf.

International Swaps and Derivatives Association, CDS on US Sovereign Debt Q&A, July 27, 2011,

http://www2.isda.org/news/cds-on-us-sovereign-debt-qampa.

Jeffrey S. Tolk, “Understanding The Risks In Credit Default Swaps,” special report, Moody’s Investors’ Service,

March 16, 2001, available at http://www.securitization.net/pdf/MoodysSyntheticCDORisks.pdf.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

agencies have also been more willing to discuss contingencies than ISDA, which generally seeks

to avoid statements regarding hypothetical future events.

Credit Rating Agency Warnings and the S&P Downgrade

The rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the United States’ sovereign credit

rating from AAA to AA+ on August 5, 2011. S&P not only expressed concerns about the federal

government’s fiscal outlook, but also cited “political brinksmanship” in debt ceiling negotiations,

which raised the issue of a hypothetical federal default, as a factor in its decision.

On August 2, 2011, Moody’s confirmed the federal government would retain its Aaa rating,

Moody’s highest, although it would continue to keep it on “negative outlook.”62 Fitch Ratings

also confirmed its AAA rating of federal debt on the same day.63 Both agencies, however,

expressed concerns about the federal government’s fiscal outlook.

S&P provided the U.S. Treasury with an advance draft of its downgrade announcement that

contained an error that overestimated federal government’s accumulation of debt of the next

decade by about $2 trillion.64 The error resulted from confusion in the use of budget baselines and

led many economists to criticize S&P. A former CBO acting director termed the error

“remarkably sloppy.”65 S&P contends that factors that led to the downgrade—“current level of

debt, the trajectory of debt as a share of the economy, and the lack of apparent willingness of

elected officials as a group to deal with the U.S. medium term fiscal outlook”—were unaffected

by its choice of baseline. As many budget experts have noted, the CBO current-law baseline used

to score legislation is likely an overly optimistic indicator of the federal government’s fiscal

condition.66

Previous Credit Agency Warnings

On April 18, 2011, Standard and Poor’s had affirmed the U.S. government’s long-term AAA

rating on its debt, although it expressed concerns about “very large budget deficits and rising

government indebtedness” and that “the path to addressing these is not clear to us.”67 On July 14,

Moody’s Investors’ Service, “Moody’s Confirms US Aaa Rating, Assigns Negative Outlook,” August 2, 2011,

available at http://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-confirms-US-Aaa-Rating-assigns-negative-outlook?lang=en&

cy=global&docid=PR_223568#.

Reuters, “Text: Fitch on U.S. Debt, Sovereign Rating,” August 2, 2011, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/

2011/08/02/us-text-fitch-idUSTRE7714M620110802.

John Bellows, “Just the Facts: S&P’s $2 Trillion Mistake,” Treasury Notes, August 6, 2011, available at

http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/Just-the-Facts-SPs-2-Trillion-Mistake.aspx.

Donald Marron, “S&P’s $2 Trillion Error,” weblog, posted August 7, 2011, available at http://dmarron.com/2011/08/

07/sps-2-trillion-error/.

For details, see CRS Report RL33623, Long-Term Measures of Fiscal Imbalance, by (name redacted). For a

comparison of baselines, see Alan J. Auerbach, “Long-Term Fiscal Sustainability in Major Economies,” paper

presented at the Bank of International Settlements Annual Conference, June 23-24, 2011, Lucerne, Switzerland,

available at http://www.bis.org/events/conf110623/auerbach.pdf.

Standard and Poor’s, “’AAA/A-1+’ Rating On United States of America Affirmed; Outlook Revised To Negative,”

April 18, 2011, available at http://www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/articles/en/us/?assetID=1245302886884.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

2011, it announced that it had placed its rating of federal debt on a negative watch because of its

perception of the state of budgetary negotiations.68

Standard and Poor’s also stated that it would maintain the U.S. government’s long-term AAA

rating if Congress and the President could reach an agreement on a fiscal consolidation plan of

about $4 trillion over the “medium term.”69 One analyst criticized Standard and Poor’s for

framing a credit rating warning in those terms, contending that “[r]esolving the long-term fiscal

imbalances facing the United States will be a project for an entire political generation, not a onetime affair that can be wrapped up in a single Congressional session.”70 The analyst also noted

that Standard and Poor’s had reportedly issued private warnings that prioritizing obligations that

would delay commercial payments risk the federal government’s AAA long-term rating, even if

all payments to holders of federal securities were made.71

The Fitch ratings agency announced on June 8, 2011, that it would place the U.S. sovereign rating

on negative watch if Congress did not raise the federal government’s borrowing ceiling by August

2.72 Fitch also stated that if the U.S. government missed an August 15 coupon payment, then Fitch

would place the rating on restricted default. Although Moody’s and S&P have issued warnings

along the same lines, Fitch was the first large ratings agency to say directly that U.S. Treasury

securities could be downgraded, even for a short period. In 1995, Fitch reportedly issued a similar

warning when a default on Treasury interest payments was viewed as possible. After the debt

limit was raised, that warning was dropped.73

On June 2, Moody’s announced that it would likely review the U.S. government’s Aaa bond

rating in mid-July if negotiations to raise the debt limit failed to make adequate progress. On July

13, 2011, Moody’s stated it would place the U.S. government’s Aaa bond rating on review

because of the possibility that the “debt limit will not be raised in a timely basis.” Moody’s also

stated that a default, however short lived, would lead to a downgrade from Aaa to “somewhere in

the Aa range.”74

Criticisms of Credit Rating Agencies

Credit rating agencies in general and S&P in particular have been criticized in the wake of the

2007-2009 financial crisis and the S&P downgrade of federal debt.75 The Financial Crisis Inquiry

Commission concluded that “three credit rating agencies were key enablers of the financial

Standard and Poor’s, “United States of America ‘AAA/A-1+’ Ratings Placed on CreditWatch Negative on Rising

Risk of Policy Stalemate,” Research Update, July 14, 2011.

Ibid., p. 4.

Wrightson Research/ICAP, “Rating Agency Downgrade Threats,” Money Market Observer, July 18, 2011.

Ibid.

“Fitch Sees Risk of Greece, U.S. Defaults,” Reuters, June 21, 2011, accessible at http://www.reuters.com/article/

2011/06/21/us-fitch-usa-debt-idUSTRE75K0AP20110621.

Joe Deaux, “Fitch: U.S. Risks Downgrade of AAA Rating,” TheStreet.com, June 8, 2011, available at

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11147046/1/fitch-us-risks-downgrade-of-aaa-rating.html.

Moody’s Investors Service, “Moody’s Places US Aaa Government Bond Rating and Related Ratings on Review for

Possible Downgrade,” July 13, 2011, available at http://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Places-US-AaaGovernment-Bond-Rating-and-Related-Ratings.

For details, see CRS Report R40613, Credit Rating Agencies and Their Regulation, by (name redacted) and (name redac

ted).

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

meltdown,” due to their role in rating structured financial products and the institutions that issued

them.76 Others have criticized rating agencies for tending to assign higher ratings to corporate

securities than to public sector securities, even though historical public sector default rates have

been far lower than corporate default rates.77 Ratings agencies contend that they have taken steps

to recalibrate their scales to ensure that securities with the same rating have similar risk

characteristics.78 Low rates of public sector defaults in the past, of course, is no guarantee of

future behavior.

Some analyses suggest that credit ratings for sovereigns are more closely tied to reputational

indicators rather than factors that are predictive of default or severe fiscal stress.79 Another

analysis found that Moody’s sovereign ratings and Institutional Investor scores were poor

predictors of banking and currency crises.80 That rating agencies had been overly optimistic about

the performance of some corporations, structured financial products, or emerging market

sovereigns in the past need not imply that credit ratings agencies are now too pessimistic

regarding the federal government’s fiscal situation in the future.

Historical Precedents

The U.S. Treasury missed a payment on Treasury bills only once, as far as is generally known. In

1979, the Treasury failed to redeem $122 million of Treasury bills on time, blaming unusually

high interest from small investors, a delay in raising the debt ceiling, and a word-processing

equipment failure, according to The Economist magazine.81 One study concluded that it resulted

in a 60-basis point interest premium on certain federal debt for several years afterwards.82

Small investors affected by the missed payment then filed a class action suit against the federal

government.83 Some were persuaded to accept compensation and agreed to withdraw from the

suit. The case was dismissed on June 10, 1980.84 Representative Gephardt introduced a measure

(H.R. 6054, 96th Congress) on December 6, 1979, to authorize the Treasury Secretary to

National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States, Final Report, January

2011, p. xxv, available at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fcic/fcic.pdf.

Moody’s Investors Service, Public Finance Credit Committee, “Request for Comment: Mapping of Moody’s U.S.

Municipal Bond Rating Scale to Moody’s Corporate Rating Scale and Assignment of Corporate Equivalent Ratings to

Municipal Obligations,” June 2006, available at http://www.moodys.com/cust/content/content.ashx?source=

StaticContent/Free%20pages/Credit%20Policy%20Research/documents/current/2005700000427679.pdf.

U.S. Congress, House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Credit

Rating Agencies: Part Two, 112th Cong., 1st sess., July 27, 2011. See questions posed by Representative Capuano.

Nate Silver, “Why S.&P.’s Ratings Are Substandard and Porous,” New York Times, Five Thirty Eight Blog, August

8, 2011, available at http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/why-s-p-s-ratings-are-substandard-andporous/.

Carmen M. Reinhardt and Kenneth S. Rogoff, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, (Princeton:

Princeton, NJ, 2009), ch. 17. The twelve countries that showed the greatest improvement on the Institutional Investor

sovereign credit ratings from 1979 to 2008 include Portugal, Spain, and Greece.

“The Mother of All Tail Risks,” The Economist, June 23, 2011.

Terry L. Zivney and Richard D. Marcus, “The Day the United States Defaulted on Treasury Bills,” Financial

Review, vol. 24 (1989), issue 3, pages 475-89.

Claire G. Barton v. United States, Docket No. 79, 1718LTL (Gx), United States District Court, Central District of

California.

Zivney and Marcus, op. cit.

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

compensate the remaining investors from the case, which was referred to the House Committee

on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, but was not enacted.

Some economists contend that the departure of the United States and several other advanced

countries from the gold standard in the 1930s constituted a de facto sovereign default, although

not all economic historians have characterized those events as defaults.85 The Supreme Court

ruled in the 1935 case Perry v. United States86 that Congress could statutorily adjust the

conditions for repayment on existing bonds, specifically from gold to legal tender.87

In the early 1840s, several state governments defaulted on obligations. Nine governments

defaulted in the period 1841 to 1843, and five governments repudiated their debts, in part or in

whole. Many of these states, having observed the success of the Erie Canal, had invested heavily

in canals, turnpikes, and other internal improvements.88 A severe economic downturn in the 1840s

left several states unable or unwilling to service their bond debt. Following the Civil War, 10

southern states repudiated at least some of their public debts.89 Several other states defaulted on

obligations following the Panic of 1873.90

Some economists have noted that while defaults among highly developed countries have been

rare in the past half century, sovereign defaults have occurred many times in the past.91

Information and Market Prices

Markets for contingent contracts, such as CDSs, can provide valuable information about the

probability of the occurrence of defined events as perceived by financial markets. Economists

have long noted that market prices may convey valuable signals about economic fundamentals.92

More recently, economists have engineered markets in order to induce individuals to reveal

private information.93 In some cases, however, predictions drawn from such markets have not

always performed as well as predictions generated in more traditional ways.94

Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, “Banking Crises: An Equal Opportunity Menace,” NBER Working

Paper 14587, December 2008, p. 10.

294 U.S. 330 (1935).

Ibid. at 357. A Joint Resolution of Congress adopted on June 5, 1933 declared that provisions requiring “payment in

gold or a particular kind of coin or currency” were “against public policy.” Christina Romer found that countries that

left the gold standard earlier started their economic recovery from the Great Depression more quickly. See Christina

Romer, “What Ended the Great Depression?” Journal of Economic History, vol. 52, no. 4, December 1992.

William B. English, “Understanding the Costs of Sovereign Default: American State Debts in the 1840's,” American

Economic Review, vol. 86, no. 1 (March 1996), pp. 259-275; Arthur Grinath, III, John J. Wallis, and Richard E. Sylla,

“Debt, Default, and Revenue Structure: The American State Debt Crisis in the Early 1840s,” NBER Historical Paper

97, March 1997. Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Pennsylvania defaulted temporarily; Arkansas, Louisiana, and

Michigan partially repudiated their debts; Mississippi and the Florida Territory completely repudiated their debts.

William A. Scott, Repudiation of State Debts in the United States, (New York: Crowley, 1893), p. 276. Those states

were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and

Virginia.

Ibid, ch. V; R. P. Porter, “State Debts and Repudiation,” International Review, November 1880, pp. 556-592.

See Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Princeton

University Press, 2009).

Friedrich von Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review vol. 35 (1945), pp. 519-530.

Charles R. Plott, “Markets as Information Gathering Tools,” Southern Economic Journal, vol. 67, no. 1 (2000), pp.

(continued...)

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Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Under strong technical assumptions, default probabilities can be extracted from CDS prices

conditional on an assumed recovery rate.95 The recovery rate, were a credit event to occur, would

be one minus the percentage loss deemed to have occurred. For example, if an analyst assumed a

recovery rate would be 95%, then a default probability could be inferred from a CDS price.96

The reliability of inferred default probabilities, however, may be low for several reasons. In small

and thinly traded markets, a few large trades might have strong effects on prices. Large spreads

between bid and ask prices (i.e., offered buying and selling prices) can affect reliability of

inferences about default probabilities. Prices for CDSs on U.S. Treasuries, therefore, may be an

imperfect and potentially misleading indicator of actual sovereign default risks.

In thin markets, investors with strong information but weak financial backing may have difficulty

leveraging insights into trading profits. Such traders seeking financing may experience conflicts

between revealing some information to signal credibility while keeping enough information

private to maintain a trading advantage.97 This may discourage some traders from participating in

these markets, which in turn hinders the flow of information to markets. In addition, information

or the ability to understand the consequences of key information may not flow smoothly in

markets, but may respond sharply at a few key turning points. For example, CDSs on the

investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, as well as insurer AIG, moved dramatically

before their bankruptcies.98

Even if CDS prices are an imperfect signal of credit events, they may nonetheless react

systematically to economic or political events. CDSs, however, probably provide a more useful

indicator of sovereign default risks for countries whose sovereign CDSs are more actively traded.

Thus, pricing and volume trends for sovereign CDSs on countries facing more immediate fiscal

challenges, such as Greece and Portugal, where default risks appear more salient due to higher

levels of fiscal stress, may be more informative indicators.99

U.S. CDSs Versus Other Sovereign CDSs

Volumes of outstanding contracts and trading activity for U.S. CDSs are limited in comparison

with CDS markets for several Eurozone countries. CDS markets have been more active for

(...continued)

1-15.

Christopher Wlezien and Robert S. Erikson, “Markets vs. Polls as Election Predictors: An Historical Assessment,”

Temple University working paper, 2011, available at http://www.temple.edu/polsci/wlezien/documents/

MarketsandPollsIIfordistribution.pdf.

Deutsche Bank Research, “How Do CDS Spreads Relate to the Probability Of Default?” no date, available at

http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000183612.pdf.

More sophisticated techniques designed to analyze CDSs with different time horizons can, under certain technical

assumptions, impute more information about default events. See Jun Pan and Kenneth J. Singleton, “Default and

Recovery Implicit in the Term Structure of Sovereign CDS Spreads,” MIT working paper, May 26, 2007, available at

http://www.mit.edu/~junpan/sovrev.pdf.

For an example, see Michael Lewis, The Big Short (New York: Norton, 2010), ch. 2.

See William D. Cohan, House of Cards (New York, Doubleday, 2009); Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big to Fail (New

York: Viking, 2009).

For a description of Greece’s financial situation, see CRS Report R41167, Greece’s Debt Crisis: Overview, Policy

Responses, and Implications, coordinated by (name redacted).

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

sovereigns such as Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, which have been facing investor concerns over

potential defaults or restructurings; and for the larger countries Spain and Italy, reflecting

concerns that Eurozone fiscal pressures could spread. CDS markets on emerging market (EM)

government debt has typically been more active than CDS markets for governments of developed

countries. The CDS market on U.S. CDSs, as noted above, is illiquid and thinly traded.

On June 15, 2011, Dow Jones reported that the one-year CDS spread for the United States was at

43 basis points—higher than the 41 basis points spread for Brazil, and that the cost of insuring

one-year U.S. debt against default had been rising since mid-May on worries related to the debt

ceiling.100 Price trends for selected governments and their banking sectors are presented in

Appendix Figure A-1.

CDS Contracts and Net Notional Values Outstanding

Table 1 shows summary totals for outstanding CDS for sovereign entities with net notional value

above $3 billion equivalent value for the week ending July 8, 2011, as reported by DTCC.101

Volumes of outstanding contracts were higher for Eurozone member states facing fiscal strains,

either directly in the present, or potentially in the future. Italy was the sovereign with the largest

net CDS notional value outstanding ($23.8 billion equivalent), according to DTCC data for the

week ending July 8, 2011, followed by France ($20.4 billion equivalent), Spain ($18.9 billion

equivalent), Brazil ($16.9 billion equivalent), and Germany ($16.4 billion equivalent). Total CDS

notional value outstanding for the United States was far lower ($4.6 billion).

Differences in the number of CDS contracts outstanding are similar. For the week ending July 8,

2011, the DTCC repository reported only 1,004 outstanding CDS contracts on the United States.

CDS contracts on Italy, by contrast, totaled 8,336, and some EM countries, such as Brazil (11,783

contracts) and Mexico (9,707 contracts) had even more.

CDS Transactions

Recent trading in sovereign CDSs on Eurozone countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, and

Greece has been heavier than trading in U.S. CDSs, despite the fact that the total amount of U.S.

debt outstanding dwarfs the amount of sovereign debt of these smaller Eurozone countries.102

Table 2 shows reference entities with the highest trading volumes for the week ending July 8,

2011, as reported to DTCC. In general, trading in CDS contracts remains small in comparison

with deeper, more liquid markets in foreign exchange swaps or interest rate swaps.

Italy was the sovereign with the heaviest CDS trading, with 475 contract transactions covering a

notional value of $8.16 billion.103 By contrast, the United States had a total of 19 CDS contracts

100

Ibid.

These data, of course, only capture CDS transactions reported to DTCC. Other sovereign CDS contracts may be

traded but not reported to this DTCC repository. Thus, DTCC data may not reflect all CDS trades carried out globally

on these reference entities. No window into how many such contracts currently trade is publicly available.

102

The Eurozone refers to EU member states that have adopted the euro, the single European currency. Eurozone

countries are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta,

The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Spain.

103

These data at http://www.dtcc.com/products/derivserv/data_table_iv.php?tbid=0&tabid=0&tid=0&kid=1&asc=0.

101

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

traded and reported to DTCC, on a total notional value of $607.1 million worth of U.S.

government bonds.

Table 1. Outstanding Sovereign CDS for Week Ended July 8, 2011

Countries with Net Notional Value Above $3 Billion Equivalent

Country

Gross Notionala

Net Notionala

Outstanding Contracts

Italy

292.0

23.8

8336

France

96.7

20.4

4636

Spain

168.2

18.9

8021

Brazil

176.3

16.9

11783

Germany

95.6

16.4

2992

United Kingdom

64.1

11.9

4587

Mexico

122.8

8.9

9707

Japan

51.8

8.6

5340

China (PRC)

47.5

7.4

4833

Belgium

53.8

7.4

2862

Portugal

67.0

6.1

3604

Austria

51.0

6.1

2115

Turkey

146.5

6.1

9173

Greece

79.1

4.7

4636

United States

25.6

4.6

1004

Russia

106.1

4.5

7616

Australia

21.2

4.4

1846

Ireland

42.3

4.3

2522

South Korea

56.3

4.3

6260

Hungary

70.2

3.4

5825

Indonesia

36.8

3.1

4635

Sweden

18.8

3.0

1038

Philippines

57.0

3.0

6228

Source: DTCC.

Notes: This table ranks the largest sovereign CDS markets, as determined by net notional value, for the week

ended July 8, 2011. The U.S. ranked 15th, just after Greece, for that week, according to data reported to DTCC

repository. Notional value represents the face value of bonds on which credit protection is bought or sold.

Values in billions of U.S. dollar equivalents.

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Table 2. CDS Transactions by Most Actively Traded Reference Entities

Data for Week Ended July 8, 2011

Gross Notional

($billion equivalent)

Traded Contracts

Italy

8.16

475

Spain

3.61

341

Telefonica

0.80

191

Eastman Kodak

0.35

162

Portugal

1.75

149

Germany

3.76

143

Telecom Italia

0.76

140

Belgium

1.96

138

France

2.85

136

K. Hovnanian Enterprises

0.27

130

Brazil

1.06

121

Enel

0.74

106

General Electric Capital

0.91

106

The PMI Group

0.72

104

Ireland

1.34

102

Bank of America

0.81

Portugal Telecom International Finance

0.57

Anadarko Petroleum

0.49

China (PRC)

0.78

United Kingdom

1.75

Gas Natural Sdg.

0.49

Austria

1.69

MBIA Insurance

0.69

Glencore International AG

0.70

Casino Guichard-Perrachon

0.43

Clear Channel Communications

0.36

Greece

0.71

United States

0.61

Reference Entity

Source: DTCC.

Notes: This table ranks all reference entities (sovereign, municipal and private) by number of CDS contracts

traded for week ended July 8, 2011, for CDS contracts reported to the DTCC repository. For the U.S.

sovereign CDS, only 19 contracts were traded that week and reported to DTCC. Gross notional value includes

totals for offsetting contract positions. Values are in billions of U.S. dollar equivalents. According to DTCC data,

the U.S. ranked 292nd – tied with Poland—among single name reference entities in terms of number of contracts

traded in the week ending July 8, 2011.

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Market Context

Heavier sovereign CDS trading in recent months among Eurozone and other developed countries

reflects several distinct tensions. CDS trading on EM governments, which has typically been

more active than trading in CDS covering debt of most developed countries, in general reflects

different considerations.104

The introduction of the euro stems from a broader EU aim to develop deeper and wider ties on

several levels among European countries. Eurozone countries share a common monetary policy

controlled by the European Central Bank (ECB). The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), adopted

as part of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, was intended to ensure that overly expansionary fiscal

policies of member states would not undermine macroeconomic stability of the Eurozone and the

EU. According to SGP rules, member states running government deficits above 3% of gross

domestic product (GDP) and public debt levels above 60% of GDP are subject to the “excessive

deficit procedure” (EDP), although EDP penalty provisions have often been waived. Despite

revisions in SGP, however, member states often exceeded those target levels.105 Some member

governments, such as Greece, submitted budgetary data to EU institutions that misreported fiscal

conditions.106

The 2007-2008 financial crisis also strongly affected public finances of many advanced

economies. Some countries guaranteed bank deposits and other liabilities of the financial sector,

leading to an entanglement of public sector and financial sector balance sheets.107 The ensuing

economic downturn strongly affected economies of most developed countries. On average, EU

government ran deficits of under 1% of GDP in 2007. In 2010, those deficits were expected on

average to reach over 7% of GDP.108 Many European countries face some of the same long-term

fiscal challenges as the United States, such as a demographic shift to an older population and

rising health care costs.

Concerns about the sustainability of the fiscal situations of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have

been fueled by high levels of public debt and weak prospects for economic growth. These

countries are currently receiving financial support from other Eurozone countries and the

International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid defaulting on their debt. Those economies, however,

are small relative to the Eurozone as a whole. A wider concern is that an uncontained sovereign

debt crisis in one of those countries could spark fiscal contagion, leading to larger challenges for

EU policymakers.109 Italy and Spain, which are much larger economies, have also been

104

For further details on the Greece’s situation, see CRS Report R41167, Greece’s Debt Crisis: Overview, Policy

Responses, and Implications, coordinated by (name redacted).

105

For details, Mark Hallerberg, Rolf Strauch, and Jürgen von Hagen, “The Design of Fiscal Rules and Forms of

Governance in European Union Countries,” Working Paper Series 419, European Central Bank, 2004.

106

The European Commission in 2004 complained that “the quality of public data is not satisfactory.” European

Commission Report from the Commission: Greece, Brussels, May 19, 2004, available at

http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/sgp/pdf/30_edps/104-03/2004-05-19_el_104-3_en.pdf. In a subsequent report, the

Commission has indicated that it considers the quality of Greek public data to have improved.

107

Bank of International Settlements (BIS), “The Impact of Sovereign Credit Risk on Bank Funding Conditions,”

CGFS Papers no. 43, July 2011.

108

European Commission, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, Public Finances in EMU 2010,

available at http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2010/pdf/ee-2010-4_en.pdf.

109

For details, see Barclay’s Capital Research, “Difficult Economic Realities are Becoming Increasingly Apparent,”

Credit Alpha brief, June 3, 2011.

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

experiencing heavy selling of stocks and bonds, as apprehension grows among investors about the

sustainability of public finances and the scope of the Eurozone crisis.110

Is the United States Different?

Significant differences appear to exist in the market for U.S. CDSs compared with that of Greece

and other EU countries under severe fiscal pressure, even if some long-term challenges are

similar. Economists point to various reasons for the differences, particularly the low amount of

extant CDSs on U.S. debt relative to other countries facing financial difficulties.

The U.S. dollar’s status as an international reserve currency implies that the U.S. government can

earn additional seignorage, a privilege that policymakers may wish to protect. Seignorage is

earned on the difference between a currency’s production cost and its circulating value. U.S. debt

is also denominated in dollars, the supply of which is controlled by the U.S. government. This

might, in theory, provide a short-run incentive for monetary policies that would lead to higher

inflation rates, thus reducing the real value of the debt. On the other hand, many government

expenses would rise with inflation, and the financial burden of past accumulations of debt (which

inflation would cut) have been projected to be smaller than the costs of future entitlement

payments (which inflation would not in itself cut).111

Despite the upward trend in U.S. CDS prices, U.S. Treasury yields remain at historically low

levels, in part due to the United States’ status as a “safe haven,” amidst potential turmoil in

Eurozone countries. The Federal Reserve System, which has a dual mandate to maintain price

stability and to pursue maximum sustainable employment, has run a more accommodating

monetary policy than the European Central Bank, as inflationary pressures in the United States

have generally been more subdued. The federal government is not subject to the structural

stresses facing the Eurozone resulting from a common monetary policy and a less centralized set

of fiscal policies. That noted, the United States also faces long-term fiscal challenges.

The Debt Limit and Long Term Fiscal Challenges

President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 (S. 365; P.L. 112-25) on August 2, 2011,

which included provisions to raise the debt limit and reduce deficits. The narrowing of the spread

between one-year and five-year CDSs on Treasury debt in the first half of 2011, as shown in

Figure 1, suggests that market concerns were focused on debt limit constraints facing the U.S.

Treasury. The consequences of not raising the debt limit before that point, according to some

financial analysts, could be severe.112 Debt limit concerns appear to have decreased demand for

longer-maturity Treasury securities and increased demand for shorter-term securities, as some

110

See Andrew Davis, “Plunge Brings Europe Debt Crisis to Italy,” Bloomberg News, July 12, 2011, available at

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/italian-plunge-brings-debt-crisis-to-europe-s-biggest-borrower.html.

111

Christopher Neely, “Markets Worry More About Sovereign Debt,” International Economic Trends, February 2009,

Federal Reserve paper at http://www.research.stlouisfed.org.

112

See Fitch Ratings, “Thinking the Unthinkable—What if the Debt Ceiling Was Not Increased and the US

Defaulted?” June 8, 2011; JPMorgan Fixed Income Strategy Group, “The Domino Effect of a US Treasury Technical

Default,” April 19, 2011.

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

financial institutions take steps to ensure liquidity.113 While U.S. CDS prices rose to a record high

of about 82 bps before passage of the act.

After the Budget Control Act was enacted, U.S. CDSs fell to previous levels, trading at about 55

bps in mid August 2011. U.S. CDSs have been trading in the same price range as Germany’s, but

far below CDS prices for Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. For example, in mid August 2011, Greek

CDSs traded around 1700 bps, Portuguese CDSs around 800 bps, and Irish CDSs around 700 bps.

Prices for Treasuries suggest that financial markets continue to consider federal debt instruments

a safe haven despite the S&P downgrade. Treasury price trends shortly after enactment of the

Budget Control Act suggested an unwinding of liquidity positions taken beforehand, leading to a

slight increase in yields on shorter maturity Treasuries, while longer maturity Treasury yields fell,

perhaps reflecting renewed concerns about economic growth and events in the Eurozone.

While passage of the Budget Control Act eased concerns about the U.S. Treasury’s ability to meet

federal financial obligations for the time being, market participants remain concerned about

longer-term fiscal challenges facing the U.S. government, even if the relevant horizon for those

issues extends well beyond the window of a five-year CDS contract. The Congressional Budget

Office (CBO), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the IMF, and others consider the

federal government’s current fiscal path unsustainable.114 Moreover, the tenor of the debt limit

discussions raised additional concerns among credit rating agencies, among others. Protection of

the federal government’s full faith and credit in the long term, according to most public finance

experts, requires measures to bring the trajectories of spending and revenues into line with each

other.

113

Michael Mackenzie and Aline van Duyn, “Wall Street to Cut Reliance on Treasuries Amid Debt Ceiling Fears,”

Financial Times, June 13, 2011, p. 1.

114

For details, see CRS Report RL33623, Long-Term Measures of Fiscal Imbalance, by (name redacted).

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Appendix. CDS Price Trends for Selected Countries

Figure A-1.Sovereign and Bank CDS Premiums in Selected Countries

In Basis Points (Left-hand scale)

Source: Bank of International Settlements (BIS); based on Datastream data. Excerpted BIS, The Impact of

Sovereign Credit Risk on Bank Funding Conditions,” CGFS Papers no. 43, July 2011.

Notes: Premia on five-year CDS on senior bonds issued by sovereigns or banks. Scale is on left-hand side.

Congressional Research Service

Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market

Author Contact Information

(name redacted)

Analyst in Economic Policy

[redacted]@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

Congressional Research Service

(name redacted)

Analyst in Financial Economics

[redacted]@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

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