In the Regulatory equivalent of a pair of socks- necessary, entirely expected, but still welcome; the ESAs have today delivered an early Christmas present to Heads of Compliance in a draft Revised RTS echoing the July 2019 BCBS/IOSCO IM mitigation. Initial Margin          A revised article 36(1) instantiates the BCBS/IOSCO recommended bifurcation into two remaining IM […]

Highlander 1986, “There can be only one!” or for a younger generation, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or die”. Risk magazine reports that MarginXchange (MX) has retired from the fray, leaving an open (if depleted) field for its erstwhile rival ISDACreate (IC). MX was established by the triumvirate of Allen & Overy, […]

Published in the OJ on 28 May, EMIR Refit entered into force on 17 June. Aimed at simplifying requirements and making obligations on smaller counterparties more proportionate, the Regulation is comprehensively summarised here. This short note focusses on one aspect of EMIR Refit’s key changes- its expansion of the scope comprised by “financial counterparty”. “Financial […]

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 […]

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 […]

As market participants are all too aware, following the financial crisis in 2008-2009, G20 agreed to a regulatory reform agenda covering the OTC derivatives market and market participants, including proposals for margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives. The recommendations were finalised in the BCBS-IOSCO’s Final Framework for Non-Centrally Cleared Derivatives, which established the international standards […]

What did we learn? 1 March 2017 – deadline day for ‘big bang’ – has come and gone.  We all breathed a sigh of relief.  Or did we?  Regulators recognised the fact that firms would not be compliant and, in general, counselled the industry to ‘do your best to get it done by 1 September’.  […]

To rephrase the old complaint- you wait for ages for a WGMR update then two arrive at once. The MAS in Singapore and the APRA in Australia have today issued revised and final timelines for compliance with their respective non-cleared margin rulesets. The APRA announced that Prudential Standard CPS 226 Margining and risk mitigation for […]

The Final Frontier On 17 November 2016, ISDA published a “Supplemental Rules Exhibit” (the “EMIR Supplement”) to the ISDA 2016 Variation Margin Protocol (the “Protocol”).  The purpose of the EMIR Supplement is to enable adherents to the Protocol to integrate amendments for margin rules for OTC derivatives in order to achieve compliance with EMIR[1] into […]