Goldman Sachs 2015 Annual Report Download - page 190

THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
Derivative Guarantees. The firm enters into various
derivatives that meet the definition of a guarantee under
U.S. GAAP, including written equity and commodity put
options, written currency contracts and interest rate caps,
floors and swaptions. These derivatives are risk managed
together with derivatives that do not meet the definition of
a guarantee, and therefore the amounts in the tables above
do not reflect the firm’s overall risk related to its derivative
activities. Disclosures about derivatives are not required if
they may be cash settled and the firm has no basis to
conclude it is probable that the counterparties held the
underlying instruments at inception of the contract. The
firm has concluded that these conditions have been met for
certain large, internationally active commercial and
investment bank counterparties, central clearing
counterparties and certain other counterparties.
Accordingly, the firm has not included such contracts in the
tables above. In addition, see Note 7 for information about
credit derivatives that meet the definition of a guarantee,
which are not included in the tables above.
Derivatives are accounted for at fair value and therefore the
carrying value is considered the best indication of payment/
performance risk for individual contracts. However, the
carrying values in the tables above exclude the effect of
counterparty and cash collateral netting.
Securities Lending Indemnifications. The firm, in its
capacity as an agency lender, indemnifies most of its
securities lending customers against losses incurred in the
event that borrowers do not return securities and the
collateral held is insufficient to cover the market value of
the securities borrowed. Collateral held by the lenders in
connection with securities lending indemnifications was
$32.85 billion and $28.49 billion as of December 2015 and
December 2014, respectively. Because the contractual
nature of these arrangements requires the firm to obtain
collateral with a market value that exceeds the value of the
securities lent to the borrower, there is minimal
performance risk associated with these guarantees.
Other Financial Guarantees. In the ordinary course of
business, the firm provides other financial guarantees of the
obligations of third parties (e.g., standby letters of credit
and other guarantees to enable clients to complete
transactions and fund-related guarantees). These
guarantees represent obligations to make payments to
beneficiaries if the guaranteed party fails to fulfill its
obligation under a contractual arrangement with that
beneficiary.
Guarantees of Securities Issued by Trusts. The firm has
established trusts, including Goldman Sachs Capital I, the
APEX Trusts, the 2012 Trusts, and other entities for the
limited purpose of issuing securities to third parties, lending
the proceeds to the firm and entering into contractual
arrangements with the firm and third parties related to this
purpose. The firm does not consolidate these entities. See
Note 16 for further information about the transactions
involving Goldman Sachs Capital I, the APEX Trusts, and
the 2012 Trusts.
The firm effectively provides for the full and unconditional
guarantee of the securities issued by these entities. Timely
payment by the firm of amounts due to these entities under
the guarantee, borrowing, preferred stock and related
contractual arrangements will be sufficient to cover
payments due on the securities issued by these entities.
Management believes that it is unlikely that any
circumstances will occur, such as nonperformance on the
part of paying agents or other service providers, that would
make it necessary for the firm to make payments related to
these entities other than those required under the terms of
the guarantee, borrowing, preferred stock and related
contractual arrangements and in connection with certain
expenses incurred by these entities.
Indemnities and Guarantees of Service Providers. In
the ordinary course of business, the firm indemnifies and
guarantees certain service providers, such as clearing and
custody agents, trustees and administrators, against
specified potential losses in connection with their acting as
an agent of, or providing services to, the firm or its
affiliates.
178 Goldman Sachs 2015 Form 10-K