The ISDA Master Agreement, the authoritative contract widely used by industry participants, represents a milestone achievement because it has established international contractual standards governing privately negotiated derivatives transactions that reduce legal uncertainty and allow for reduction of credit risk through netting of contractual obligations. As the business has developed and grown, ISDA expanded and updated the Master Agreement and its supporting documents, a process that continues today.

Ensuring the enforceability of the netting provisions of the ISDA Master Agreement has been, and remains, a key initiative, because of its importance in reducing the credit risk arising from the business. The Association's work in this area has resulted in a series of laws being passed in various countries that ensure legal certainty in those nations. Since its original request for opinions from the G-10 countries in 1987 that only addressed the enforceability of certain provisions of the 1987 Master Agreement, ISDA continues to expand the number of countries covered by netting opinions to over 40. The scope of the opinions now includes the enforceability of the termination, bilateral close-out netting and multibranch netting provisions of the 1987, 1992 and 2002 Master Agreements. Counsel has also been asked to review whether the inclusion of additional derivatives transactions, such as credit derivatives, bullion transactions and weather derivatives, affects the legal opinions being rendered.

These opinions are now updated annually to comply with requests from various central banks. ISDA continues to expand its efforts related to the enforceability of netting provisions in emerging markets jurisdictions, working with the relevant legislative and regulatory representatives. In addition, ISDA also solicits legal opinions on the enforceability of the ISDA Credit Support Documents in various jurisdictions. Those opinions are also updated on an annual basis and are available to members on this website.