Since 2000 the insurer has set aside £100m a year to meet possible payments, but has decided it "does not make sense" to continue to make provisions.
But tens of millions of dollars from the sale have not been properly accounted for, prompting investigations by prosecutors in Switzerland and France into possible payments of bribes.
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, which now collects trading information, was able to say last week that the $35.3 billion of outstanding swaps trades on G.M. netted down to possible payments between market participants of an unremarkable $2.2 billion.
The curious case of the possible payments to people smugglers will reveal whether a government can get away with refusing to provide any information because its goal – "stop the boats" – justifies the use of any means.
The former Foreign Secretaries were filmed discussing possible payments of up to £5,000 a day for using their contacts and experience to benefit a private company in a sting by Channel 4's Dispatches and the Telegraph.
"No one likes to pay the size of these possible payments ($1 billion in the case of TXU, $900 million in the case of SLM), tarnish their reputation as a bad player or admit to your investors that you made a bad decision, but sometimes cutting your losses is the better part of valor.
