Credit event auctions set for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Markit and Creditex together with nine major credit derivative dealers have conducted a credit event auction to facilitate the settlement of credit derivative trades referencing Tembec Industries The final price was fixed at 83.00%.

Markit and Creditex will be conducting four credit event auctions in relation to the settlement of CDS contracts referencing Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) on October 6.

Markit and Creditex are the official administrators of credit event auctions.

Tembec Industries is a Canadian forest products company that filed a Chapter 15 bankruptcy petition in the US. This triggered a credit event in credit-default swap (CDS) contracts referencing the company.

Markit and Creditex administered the credit event auction under the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) 2008 Tembec CDS Protocol announced on September 12, 2008. The credit event auction enabled market participants to cash settle single-name, index, bespoke tranche and other credit derivative transactions.

During the auction dealers submitted orders electronically on the Creditex platform. The auction submissions were delivered to Markit electronically. Markit calculated and verified the results, and published them on a website.

The credit event auction process was launched in 2005 by Markit and Creditex in collaboration with ISDA and major credit derivative dealers to facilitate the settlement of credit derivative contracts in the event of a corporate default. Previous auctions were held for Quebecor World, Movie Gallery, Collins & Aikman, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Delphi Corporation, Calpine Corporation, Dana Corporation and Dura.