March 2011, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Commodities Steering Committee (COSC) and Commodities Major Dealers Implementation Group (CMD) made a commitment to global supervisors to continue to drive a high level of product, processing and legal standardization, with a goal of securing further operational efficiency, mitigating operational risk and increasing the netting and clearing potential for appropriate products. This whitepaper (the Paper) analyzes existing and, where appropriate, potential opportunities for further standardization in the over-the-counter (OTC) commodity derivatives market. Additionally, the Paper includes a summary of key commodities’ trade processing lifecycle events, aligned, where appropriate, with established industry programs concerning metrics, documentation and electronic processing.

Listed trades and cleared OTC trades have been specifically excluded from the scope of this Paper due to the high degree of automation inherent in the processing of such trade types.