In the sub-market for credit default swaps, for example, the ten most important market participants are involved in more than 70 % of all transactions. Since the counterparties often cover only part of the counterparty risk associated with these transactions, these market participants in particular are a potential source of contagion risk.
Counterparty risks can be reduced by relocating them to CCPs, which continuously evaluate the open positions of the trading participants and demand a relatively high level of collateral.