Tag: OTC Derivatives
Brexit – contractual dis-continuity
A question that has been ignored, until very recently, is how firms will deal with cross-border derivative contracts when the UK leaves the EU in March 2019. Leaving the single market without either EEA membership or a trade agreement covering financial services will result in complications for existing derivative contracts. With approximately £26 trillion of […]
ISDA presses the panic button on IM
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 […]
CFTC to simplify segregation
July 24th saw a unanimous approval of the CFTC’s proposal to reduce the complexity surrounding segregation of assets held as collateral in uncleared swap transactions. Under the Dodd-Frank, a swap dealer was required to notify each counterparty that they (the counterparty) possessed the right to choose whether to keep their funds in a segregated account […]
EU FFX – fiasco saga
On 24 November the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) released their long (in context) awaited forbearance announcement with respect to the margining or not of forward foreign exchange. A short summary follows: Everyone else agreed to this but didn’t follow on Our hands are tied and we will need to change EU law Likely changes will […]
EU OTC Derivatives Market: Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated?
On 19 October 2017, ESMA published its “first-time overview” of the EU derivatives market – a study of the size of the EU derivatives market based on aggregated data sourced from the 6 EU-authorised trade repositories. The analysis takes the most updated values of all derivatives contracts with open interest at the end of 24 […]
Margin rules delay is in the air
The industry’s call for a delay in the margin rules, expected to apply from 1 December 2015, may finally receive a positive response from the regulators[1]. These rules on risk-management of uncleared derivatives will impose collection of Initial Margin (IM) and Variation Margin (VM). The global phase-in timeline was set by the Basel Committee on […]
EMIR Risk Mitigation- FCA hammer to fall
A brief reminder that the FCA’s deadline for compliance with EMIR risk-mitigation regulations expires on 30th April 2014. Firms must be in a position to demonstrate compliance after this date or face a possible fine and public disclosure of the penalty. The regulator updated its EMIR website page in February stating that it expects firms […]
Regulators Look to Up Their Game Over Cross-Border Regulation
On 19 April 2013, HM Treasury published a letter signed by the finance ministers of Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the EU Commission outlining concerns over the lack of progress in developing workable cross-border rules in relation to OTC derivatives market. The letter is addressed to the US Treasury […]