U.S. banks’ derivatives exposure explodes to $200 trillion

The OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities
for the Fourth Quarter 2008 is out. And derivatives exposure is way up. U.S. commercial banks now have a massive $200 trillion with a T in derivatives exposure, which is 14x U.S. GDP.

And here’s the interesting bit, 5 banks have 96% of the exposure. Wanna guess who? Hint, it’s the same big banks getting massive bailouts right now. And one of them has three times the exposure as the next closest company.

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Source
OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities
Fourth Quarter 2008 (PDF) – OCC website