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’.  […]

Introduction With VM CSA repapering in full swing over at DRS, this article took a while longer to write than first anticipated.  It has now been two weeks since ISDA published another two supplemental rules exhibits further amending the ISDA 2016 Variation Margin Protocol (the “Protocol”) on 27 January 2017: Supplemental Rules Exhibit for Non-Netting […]

Introduction On 16 August 2016, ISDA published the “2016 Variation Margin Protocol” (the “VM Protocol”), designed to assist counterparties in amending CSA documentation so as to comply with Working Group on Margin Requirements (WGMR) rules as implemented locally by: The US “Prudential Regulators”; The CFTC; The Financial Services Agency of Japan; and The Canadian Office […]

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 […]

Introduction On 14 April 2016 ISDA published the New York law “2016 Credit Support Annex for Variation Margin (VM)” (the “NY-law VM CSA”).  Subsequently, on 29 April 2016 it published the English law “2016 VM Credit Support Annex for Variation Margin (VM)” (the “English-law VM CSA” and together with the NY-law VM CSA, the “VM […]

ISDA has yesterday published its long-awaited 2016 Credit Support Annex for Variation Margin for use with New York law. The VM security-interest CSA is the first in a series of new market-standard documentation and will be joined by VM CSAs under English and Japanese law, IM CSAs and a protocol to assist amendment of legacy documents. […]

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) comprising the EBA, ESMA, and EIOPA yesterday released the final draft RTS on margin for non-cleared derivatives. The long-awaited RTS details margin requirements for uncleared derivatives under Article 11 EMIR.  The final draft implementation timeline is unchanged, the requirements will enter into force on 1 September 2016, subject to the […]

In yet another development driven by the remorseless exigencies of Regulatory Capital requirements, banks are looking to move currently clearing-exempted clients to cash-only CSAs. In order to bridge the pricing-gap between cash and non-cash collateralised swaps, banks are offering insurers and pension funds the option to post securities with an automatic switch to cash at […]