Overview

It has been said that Chuck Prince, Citigroup’s Chief Executive, did not know a CDO from a grocery list, and Dick Fuld, the CEO of Lehman, relied on younger and mathematically trained traders to sort them out. Even Goldman relied on a young trader, Fabrice Tourre, to structure and sell the CDO securities.

If the titans of investment banking didn’t quite understand the details of the securities that they were selling, it is appropriate for us lawyers to take a step back and clarify the meanings behind the alphabet soup of CDOs, synthetic CDOs and CDSs that feeds the derivative industry.

Click “view briefing” to learn more about CDOs, and their role in the banking crisis.