The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) yesterday announced its 6 month “transitional period” (read- delay) to the application of its non-cleared margin rules. The HKMA has taken the same approach as Singapore’s MAS, expecting covered entities to “to begin exchanging margin as soon as practicable”. Unlike both Singapore and Australia, the HKMA does not have […]

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 […]

The FT website is reporting unnamed sources which confirm that Council approval of the EU non-cleared margin rules will be slightly delayed until 21 November. The Council is relatively free from formal procedures for approval and has been the subject of intense, but quiet, lobbying by investment banks keen to avoid the unfortunate coincidence of […]

As previewed by its own ECON committee, the European Parliament yesterday adopted the “final” draft of the long-awaited non-cleared margin rules under EMIR. The uncharacteristic fast-tracking has created the ironic situation in which market participants are now lobbying the Council to delay their adoption of the rules in order to avoid entry into application during […]

The chairman of the Econ committee, Roberto Gualtieri, yesterday announced that the Parliament would state its lack of objection to the non-cleared margin rules RTS in the 3 day plenary session beginning 24 October, almost a month in advance of market expectations. Assuming a similar non-objection by the Council, Parliament’s expedition advances application of the […]

As expected the European Commission has today adopted the EMIR non-cleared margin RTS. The adoption is in the form of a Delegated Regulation which will be subject to an objection period by the Parliament and the Council. While both bodies are entirely capable of lodging late-stage objections, as evidenced by the recent PRIIPS paralysis, such […]

Today’s Risk magazine quotes a number of unofficial sources who expect the EC to finalise the non-cleared margin RTS at a meeting on 4 October. The adoption would then be published in the OJ late November, entering into force 20 days later and entering into application one month after that.  This projected timeline would result […]

Yesterday marked the first test of the WGMR non-cleared margin rules in the US, Canada and Japan. Even with just over 20 banks in the initial phase, market participants were readying themselves for a rocky start to the new regime. They will not have been disappointed, the afternoon saw the CFTC step in with its […]