Brazen: Big Banks, Swap Mania And The Fallout

For nearly two decades, countless non-profits in the U.S. were forced to pay big banks enormous sums of money to settle or terminate bilateral contracts known as Interest Rate Swaps (IRSs). Officials at non-profits had entered into these costly contracts unaware that each contract has only one winner, and that big banks did not intend to be the losers.The effects of such monetary transfers have been catastrophic. Money-strapped non-profits had to dismiss schoolteachers, shut off water supp…