Last month, Moody’s took its downgrade axe to almost every single top investment bank, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Barclays. It had been on the cards for months but the extent of the downgrades was only announced on June 22.

The aftershocks of such action are widespread but one palpable effect is that banks need to produce more collateral to support their business activities. Rating triggers for extra collateral can be found even in the most mundane contracts, such as credit support annex documentation, which specifies the terms under which bilateral OTC derivatives business is conducted.