On 19 July 2016, ISDA published the draft 2016 Variation Margin Protocol for public consultation. Comments must be submitted by Friday 29 July 2016. It is not in the habit of ISDA to hold a public consultation on its drafts – Protocols in particular are generally presented as a fait accompli. The initiative is to […]

On 30 June 2016, ISDA published the Regulatory Margin Self-Disclosure Letter to facilitate compliance with the regulations on margin requirements for uncleared derivatives in the following jurisdictions: Canada The European Union Japan Switzerland The United States The letter allows parties to confirm basic information about their respective status in each jurisdiction (e.g. FC, NFC+ or […]

On 7 June 2016, the Fédération Bancaire Française (“FBF”) and ISDA jointly published an Addendum to the ISDA 2016 Credit Support Annex for Variation Margin (VM) (Title Transfer – English law), recently redrafted to comply with the upcoming margin requirements for non-cleared derivatives. The pre-printed form of the English law CSA is deemed to be […]

Hat tip to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal for revealing the EU`s intention to unilaterally delay the September deadline for margin requirements. Presented as “procedural” by the European Commission, the delay would be more accurately described as “extremely material” as it will disrupt the internationally-agreed timeline set in the BCBS-IOSCO framework for margin requirements […]

On 27 May 2016, ESMA published a Consultation Paper on draft technical advice under the Benchmarks Regulation, with the objective of submitting the final report to the Commission in October 2016. The consultation is a follow-up to the Discussion Paper which covered both the technical advice and the technical standards. The consultation phase is divided […]

On 17 May 2016, the Council adopted the EU Benchmark Regulation. The EU Commission first proposed to regulate benchmarks in July 2012, in reaction to LIBOR manipulation. The final text can be found here. The regulation will enter into force on the day following publication in the Official Journal and will apply 18 months after.

On 28 April 2016, the European Parliament adopted the EU benchmark regulation in plenary session. The next step is the formal adoption by the Council, expected in May 2016 and the publication in the official journal. The provisional edition of the adopted text can be found here. [Update: the Council of the EU has published the final […]

On 25 April 2016, the EBA published a consolidated list of other systemically important institutions (O-SIIs) across the EU, also known as domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs). The list contains close to 200 institutions, with the majority of member states imposing an additional O-SII buffer under CRD IV to reflect their systemic importance. This buffer can […]

Videocon Global Ltd & Another v Goldman Sachs International [2016] EWCA Civ 130 On 15 March 2016, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of Videocon Global Ltd and Videocon Industries Limited (“Videocon”) against a summary judgment granted by the High Court in favour of Goldman Sachs International (“Goldman”). Videocon`s defence was that the termination […]