On 28 June 2022, the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published a letter to the Chief Risk Officers of banks operating under its jurisdiction. The letter details its review of the market’s use of ISDA’s Standard Initial Margin Model (SIMM); the review was intended to assess the SIMM’s performance during recent periods of market stress […]

We have posted extensively on the multiple delays to the CSDR’s Settlement Discipline Regime(SDR). By way of reminder the SDR was initially to comprise three core elements: Enhanced trade reporting to facilitate trade settlement, Incentivising timely settlement by the imposition of cash penalties, and A Mandatory buy-in regime for failed trades. Reporting and cash penalties […]

The rapidly developing situation in Ukraine has re-focused attention on the use of targeted sanctions as a disincentive or response to national aggression. Sanctions have traditionally acted as a blanket ban on any trade with those countries or entities perceived to be the most egregious.  Over the last decade, sanctions have become more focused, nuanced […]

Just as the market had come to the happy conclusion that last November’s shelving of the CSDR mandatory buy in (“MBI”) requirements was essentially a face-saving exercise, to be followed by quiet abandonment, the Commission has raised somewhat vague prospects of their revival.  On 16 March 2022, the EC published a legislative proposal for a Regulation […]

1 February 2022 marks the coming into force of the CSDR’s Settlement Discipline Regime (SDR). As originally envisaged the SDR aims to harmonise the authorisation and supervision of CSDs across the EEA, mandating rules for CSD organisation and conduct.  and uniform settlement requirements. The seemingly bland intention to promote safe and efficient settlement proved controversial […]

The final day of 2021 marked the passing of LIBOR, simultaneously the world’s most important number and most disgraced benchmark. Perhaps inevitably, the funeral has turned out to be more ambiguous than most, the attendant wake promises to be a drawn-out and slightly messy affair. Following over 4 years of preparation and an estimated $10bn […]

To the surprise of few, but the relief of many, the EU Parliament and Council have signalled a postponement of mandatory buy in (MBI) rules under the CSDR. Tabled under Any Other Business at a trilogue meeting agreeing the setup of a Distributed Ledger Technology regulatory sandbox, the co-legislators issued a “non-paper” referencing the upcoming […]

Ahead of LIBOR’s end of year demise, market participants have been waiting for clarification from the FCA on what “tough legacy” actually constitutes, i.e. those contracts which may continue to reference synthetic LIBOR. Following yesterday’s publication of a series of documents, it turns out that “tough” might be better expressed as “slightly irksome”.  Para 4.28 […]

Yesterday, ISDA launched a new module to the ISDA Resolution Stay Jurisdictional Modular Protocol (JMP)- the BRRD II Omnibus Module (“the Module”). Not to be confused with either Omnibus Directives, the new module acts to amend contracts to incorporate BRRD II Article 71a revisions. These revisions require third-country counterparty consent to statutory stays on early […]