Many of the swaps are uncleared, meaning that investors trade them directly with each other rather than through one of the clearinghouses that are mandatory for many trades after the crash, one of the people said. Europe’s biggest banks will need billions of dollars to meet new rules, with regulators asking them to hold more collateral against uncleared swaps, regulators said earlier this year.
The batch of trades also includes so-called single-name swaps, which are tied to individual companies’ creditworthiness, as opposed to an index of securities, the person said.