Big investment banks ripped up more than $30,000bn worth of credit derivatives last year, or almost half the record total outstanding at the start of 2008, according to TriOptima, which organises so-called compression cycles where trades are torn up. Banks stepped up moves to terminate old and superseded contracts amid growing pressure for reform of the derivatives industry following the failures of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, cancelling $30,200bn of credit derivatives last year.
