Continued growth in cleared derivatives and the implementation of new margining rules for non-cleared derivatives from September 2016 have resulted in significant changes in collateral practices. These changes are another important step forward in financial regulatory reform efforts.

To assess their impact, ISDA has relaunched its annual Margin Survey. The survey analyzes the amount and type of initial margin (IM) and variation margin (VM) posted for non-cleared and cleared derivatives transactions.

The survey finds that approximately $1.41 trillion of collateral has been posted by market participants with central counterparties (CCPs) for their cleared derivatives transactions and with the 20 largest market participants for their non-cleared derivatives trades.

Of this amount, IM and VM posted for cleared derivatives totals $434 billion, and for non-cleared derivatives totals $977.5 billion.

Broken out by initial and variation margin, IM posted totals $280.5 billion, with $173.4 billion for cleared and $107.1 billion for non-cleared. Variation margin posted totals $1.13 trillion, with $260.8 billion for cleared and $870.4 billion for non-cleared.