ISDA®
INTERNATIONAL
SWAPS AND DERIVATIVES ASSOCIATION, INC.
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release, Friday, October 31, 2008
For More Information, Please Contact:
Louise Marshall, ISDA New York, +1 212-901-6014, lmarshall@isda.org
Cesaltine Gregorio, ISDA New York, +1 212-901-6019, cgregorio@isda.org
Donna Chan, ISDA Hong Kong, +852 2200 5906, dchan@isda.org
ISDA INITIATIVES FURTHER STRENGTHEN OPERATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR OTC
DERIVATIVES
ISDA, together with the Operations Management Group (OMG), the Managed Funds Association (MFA) and the Asset Management Group of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), submitted the letter to Timothy Geithner, President of the NY Fed, in an effort to improve derivative market processing and scalability as well as augmenting risk mitigation and transparency.
“Recent market events have impacted the derivatives industry by increasing operational processing demands and challenging the infrastructure to manage increased trade activity and risk management,” said Robert Pickel, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, ISDA. “ISDA’s efforts have improved the efficiency and transparency of the privately negotiated business via the continued standardization of documentation, promotion of sound risk management practices and education of the marketplace.”
The ISDA initiatives outlined in the letter include:
One of the initiatives outlined in the letter is ISDA’s establishment of a successful auction-based mechanism (a process which has been commonly referred to as “hardwiring” the provisions into ISDA documentation), which allowed for cash settlement in fourteen credit events including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Lehman Brothers.
In addition, ISDA’s Collateral Committee has worked
closely with major dealers to identify and pursue further advances in
collateral management, including portfolio-reconciliation best practices.
ISDA continues to work closely with OMG, MFA and SIFMA to improve the OTC processing environment by significantly reducing systemic risk and increasing transparency. Looking forward, ISDA supports the use of central counterparty processing and clearing to significantly reduce counterparty credit risk and outstanding net notional positions. The Association plans to continue to support initiatives and platforms that operate to eliminate economically redundant trades through trade compression. ISDA will also continue to work closely with solution providers in the trade affirmation and confirmation area; maximizing throughput on these platforms is critical to improving operational efficiency and to reducing levels of outstanding transaction confirmations.
About ISDA
ISDA, which represents
participants in the privately negotiated derivatives industry, is among the
world’s largest global financial trade associations as measured by number of
member firms. ISDA was chartered in 1985, and today has approximately 850
member institutions from 56 countries on six continents. These members include
most of the world’s major institutions that deal in privately negotiated
derivatives, as well as many of the businesses, governmental entities and other
end users that rely on over-the-counter derivatives to manage efficiently the
financial market risks inherent in their core economic activities. Information
about ISDA and its activities is available on the Association's web site: www.isda.org.
About The Operations Management Group (OMG)
The OMG is a senior industry leadership group comprised of OTC
derivatives operations professionals from the buy-side and the sell-side, as
well as ISDA, the MFA and the AMG of SIFMA. The OMG’s general mission is to
examine and effect fundamental change in current front-to-back processes for
all over-the-counter derivative products.
®ISDA is a registered trademark of the International
Swaps & Derivatives Association, Inc.