CDO-Squared

CDO-Squared is an investment in the form of a special-purpose entity (SPE) with securitization payments backed by collateralized debt obligation tranches. A collateralized debt obligation is a product structured by a bank in which an investor buys a share of a pool of bonds, loans, asset-backed securities, and other credit instruments. Payments resulting from those bonds, loans, asset-backed securities, and other instruments are then passed on to the holders of the shares of the collateralized debt obligation. It is a way to invest in multiple credit instruments and diversify risk. These instruments became popular before the 2008 financial crisis. There were 36 CDO-Squared deals made in 2005, 48 in 2006 and 41 in 2007. Merrill Lynch was a big producer, creating and selling 11 of them.

The collapse of the market for collateralized debt obligations and CDO-Squared contributed to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Goldman Sachs appears to be the last bank to hold CDOs-Squared, holding $50 million (~$59.8 million in 2023) in June 2018.