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We frequently underwrite large commitments with the intention to sell down or distribute most of the risk to third parties. These commitments include the undertaking to fund bank loans and to provide bridge loans for the issuance of public bonds. The sell down or distribution is, under normal market conditions, typically accomplished within 90 days after the closing date. Our largest distribution risk relates to the businesses of Leveraged Finance and Real Estate (specifically, commercial mortgages).
For risk management purposes we treat the full amount of all such commitments as credit 
exposure requiring formal credit approval. This approval also includes our intended final hold. Amounts which we intend to sell are classified as trading assets and are subject to fair value accounting. The potential price volatility is monitored in our market risk process. To protect us against a value deterioration of such amounts, we may enter into generic market risk hedges (most commonly using related indices), which are also captured in our market risk process.
The market dislocation in 2007 resulted in a repricing of risk and the constraint of liquidity. In turn, that led to delays in distribution of our loan and bond commitments in these businesses, and a necessity to mark-down the value of certain of these holdings.
As of December 31, 2007, we had total commitments of € 36.2 billion outstanding in our Leveraged Finance business. Thereof, € 15.3 billion were funded and € 20.9 billion unfunded. In 2007 we recorded total write downs on these positions amounting to € 759 million, net of fees and gains on sales.
