Clarus Financial Technology

Most active names in Credit Derivatives – April 2025

After about a year since our last blog on this topic, it is high time for another look at the most active names in CDS, using data reported to US SEC Securities Based Data Repositories (SBSDRs).

CDS on sovereigns

Using SBSDRView, we can find the most active sovereign CDS trades in April 2025, starting with USD activity.

Table 1 – Most active USD CDS on sovereigns in April 2025

The chart shows the name, gross notional in USD millions, trade count, and rank in April 2025 (with the change in rank from March 2025). We prefer to rank CDS by trade count, as total gross notional is understated given the $5 million maximum on single trade disclosed notional.

We see:

Changing to EUR, we see the following:

Table 2 – EUR CDS on sovereigns in April 2025

We see:

The US had a few EUR CDS trades per month recently,- the most being during the November 2024 US election. Trading the US in EUR makes sense as any credit downgrade would likely impact the dollar itself.

CDS on US corporates

Next, we look at the top 25 most active US corporates, by trade count.

Table 3 – Most active CDS US corporates in April 2025

We see:

CDS on EU corporates

Next, let us look at the top 25 most active EU Corporates.

Table 4 – Most active CDS EU corporates in April 2025

We see:

A change in rank, signifying more trading, could be for various reasons. For example, a change in investor perception of the credit-worthiness of a name, a recent debt issue, or financial news for the name or sector.

CDS on Japanese corporates

Next, we look at Japanese corporates.

Table 5 – Most active CDS Japanese corporates in April 2025

We see:

By comparison, looking at March 2025, we see six names with the same top two as April.

Table 6 – Most active CDS JP corporates in March 2025

In summary

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