Banks have succeeding in dramatically cutting the backlog of unconfirmed trades that had been dogging the credit derivatives industry. Since meeting with U.S. and U.K. regulators last February, the credit derivative dealers have streamlined their processes, resulting in the number of unconfirmed trades dropping 50% from 150,000 to 74,000 in the six months ending March 31, according to the Financial Services Authority. The FSA also reports a 70% decline in unconfirmed trades older than 30 days, even as the industry has grown to nearly $17 trillion this year. According to the FSA, it took the largest banks 44 days to confirm a basic credit derivatives trade and about twice that for complex deals.
