Yes, you&#x27;re left high-and-dry if your counterparty goes bust, and since this would be such a cataclysmic event in the case of Deutsche Bank, the authorities would be forced to step in (at ginormous cost) to prevent it.<p>It&#x27;s worth noting that on derivatives, your loss if your counterparty goes bust is not the notional. It&#x27;s a fraction of the notional. But even a small fraction of 65 trillion is a very, very large number.<p>In fact the number in DBK&#x27;s case is so large that it might endanger the credibility of the authorities themselves.