AIG was a large seller of default swaps. It sold swaps both for real credit derivatives that had debt portfolios and the synthetic version modeled on the real ones. Synthetic credit derivatives and default swaps for them multiplied the liability of swap sellers several times the actual value of the debt in real portfolios. This was the systemic risk in credit derivatives. Payment obligations for swap sellers could be a multiple of the value of the debt covered by the swaps. This factor contributed to the meltdown in AIG in 2008, which was averted by financial assistance from the Federal Reserve (see generally P.M. Vasudev 2010).