Trailing in the wake of their northern neighbours, the CFTC has today issued a Staff Advisory confirming that there is no requirement for covered swap entities (CSEs) to put IM documentation and custody arrangements in place before the $50m threshold is reached.  As the conclusion to the Advisory notes: “Accordingly, to the extent the $50 […]

Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) is the first Regulator to break cover following BCBS\IOSCO’s 5 March statement. On 28 June the OSFI published a letter on its website, purporting to give guidance on the statement. For the convenience of its readers, the letter restates the BCBS\IOSCO statement, then goes on to […]

Were you at the ISDA legal forum held in New York on 11 June?  If so, we’d love to hear from you. Risk Magazine reports that Dawn DeBerry Stump, a CFTC Commissioner, lent her support to calls that US regulators should grant relief to firms which reside below the USD 50 million IM threshold.  At […]

On 3 June 2019, ISDA, SIFMA and the GFMA wrote a letter to the CFTC, the Fed, the US Treasury, the SEC, the FDIC, the Farm Credit Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency seeking clarification that covered swap entities do not have to comply with the documentation requirements of the uncleared margin rules unless […]

Risk Magazine is reporting today about the keynote speech given by Patrick Pearson (Head of the Financial Market Infrastructure and Derivatives unit at the European Commission) at the OpRisk Europe conference in London earlier today.  He is reported to have hinted that a delay in the implementation of the final phase of the IM rules […]

The deadline for compliance with Phase 4 and Phase 5 of the IM requirements is miles away, isn’t it?  Isn’t it…? The truth is that, whether you like it or not, the clock is already ticking.  Whether anyone has told you or not, the countdown has already begun. Why worry about it now? The classic […]

Opinions obviously vary, but for me there are very few opportunities to be glad not to be Australian. Here is one for already punch-drunk IM lawyers and compliance personnel. The largest four banks in New Zealand are Australian-owned- ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac. New Zealand is not a G20 member and has therefore been (relatively) […]

The CFTC’s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) has responded to industry petitions to mitigate the widely-forecasted IM Phase 5 oncoming storm. Readers will recall the July 2018 ISDA/SIFMA white paper previewing the phase 5 population explosion and recommending various reduction strategies: Raising the in-scope AANA threshold from $8bn. to $100bn. Postponing mandatory compliance until […]

A question that has been ignored, until very recently, is how firms will deal with cross-border derivative contracts when the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. Leaving the single market without either EEA membership or a trade agreement covering financial services will result in complications for existing derivative contracts. With approximately £26 trillion of […]