How does counterparty risk affect liquidity?
A market where counterparty risk is present generally collapses into a small club of participants, who have homogeneous credit risk, and who have formed social and cultural methods for handling bankruptcies. Club markets do not allow for free entry into intermediation. They support elevated intermediation fees for club members, have fewer market participants, and result in reduced liquidity. Sometimes, regulators who are afraid of payments crises forcibly shut out large numbers of participants from an OTC derivatives market.
