Banking

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reports that U.S. commercial banks boosted their derivatives holdings to $51.3 trillion in the third quarter of 2001—an increase of $3.5 trillion over the previous three months. This continued an upward trend that began after the third quarter of 2000. The OCC says in last year’s third quarter banks’ credit-risk exposure fell by $583 billion because they used derivatives to offset the risk of default on loans they made. ( www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2001-99.doc )