Politicians and regulators have had the market for credit default swaps in their sights since counterparty risk concerns, following troubles at Lehman Brothers and insurer AIG, thrust it into the spotlight last September. But the biggest change to the CDS market since then took place last week and was fashioned by industry participants rather than authorities.

Until last week, the biggest formal upheaval in the credit derivatives market, which has had a rapid ascent over the past decade, was the introduction of a template for trading credit derivatives introduced in 1992.