Within the alphabet soup of innovative financial instruments is the credit default swap, or CDS, which is profiled in this article from The Economist. In its simplest form, a CDS is like an insurance policy, where one investor collects a fee to protect another against the default of a bond. While other segments of the credit markets have seen trading dry up, the CDS market is growing.

Even more interestingly, per another article in The Economist, the premiums on bank CDSs have declined lately, indicating an easing of fears about illiquidity in the banking sector. This suggests that banks' prospects are turning positive, and with them career opportunities in banking.