BEIJING, Nov. 1 -- Ten Chinese financial institutions, mostly banks, have conducted the first batch of credit default swap (CDS) transactions.

A total of 15 transactions were made in the interbank market with a combined nominal principal at 300 million yuan (nearly 45 million U.S. dollars) on Monday, the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors said Tuesday in an online statement.

The "Big Four," China's four largest state-owned banks, and major commercial banks were among the institutions.

In one or two year terms, the transactions covered oil, electricity, water, coal, telecommunication, food and aviation.

CDS is a credit derivative product used to control risk from bond defaults which are increasing due to a prolonged economic downturn.

The demand for CDS is increasing as default risks grow, a report from China Bond Rating Co. said.

China's Dongbei Special Steel went bankrupt last month after failing to repay its debts of several billion yuan nine times.