Wonderful article in the Financial Times about the importance of IT documentation!
Unwinding derivatives is a complex task at the best of times. In the case of Lehman, one of the biggest dealers in some of the most complex derivatives markets, this has been even more so. Lehman’s global derivatives book included contracts with a notional face value of $39,000bn and deals with 8,000 different counterparties when it went bust. The derivatives business was actually split into multiple strands, backed up by between 20 and 30 different systems.
Once it went bankrupt, the staff who supported these systems “evaporated”, according to Steven O’Hanlon, president of Numerix, a pricing and valuation company which is working with Lehman Brothers Holding Inc to unwind the derivatives portfolio.
Say no more! Full article is here.
By Paul Handover
Learning from Dogs 
Finance without economy is only ruin of the planet.
The derivative market has to be allowed only when it can be proven safe, effective, and a definite planetary advantage. Meanwhile all financial “innovation” which are not safe, effective and a planetary advantage ought to be phased out, so that real money can go the real economy.
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