The Present Value

ISDA highlights a selection of research papers on derivatives and risk management               

 

Central Clearing and Risk Transformation

Rama Cont, Imperial College London

The report demonstrates that central clearing transforms counterparty risk into liquidity risk. While recent discussions have centered on the solvency of CCPs and capital requirements, the author argues that the main focus of risk management and financial stability analysis should be on the liquidity of clearing members and the liquidity resources of CCPs. Stress tests of CCPs and their clearing member should focus on liquidity stress testing: the focus should be on comparing the size of the potential liquidity shocks to clearing members with their liquidity buffers, rather than their equity. CCP recovery mechanisms should be centered not on maintaining a CCP’s operations at any cost but on avoiding financial instability and safeguarding the financial system.

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Analysis of Central Clearing Interdependencies

Financial Stability Board

The report provides an analysis of the interdependencies in central clearing, covering 26 central counterparties (CCPs) from 15 jurisdictions in North America, South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The analysis includes CCPs, their members and other financial institutions that are linked to CCPs such as custodians, settlement banks, credit and liquidity providers and investment counterparties. The data collection and analysis was as part of the work to strengthen the resilience, recovery and resolution of CCPs undertaken by the Financial Stability Board jointly with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, Committee on Payments and Markets Infrastructures, and International Organization of Securities Commissions.

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Access to Capital and Market Liquidity

Division of Economic and Risk Analysis of the US Securities and Exchange Commission

The report describes trends in primary securities issuance and secondary market liquidity and assesses how those trends relate to post-crisis regulatory reforms. It includes a survey and analysis of recent academic literature, as well as analyses based on publicly available databases and non-public regulatory filings. The report examines the issuance of debt, equity, and asset-backed securities, as well as activity and liquidity in U.S. Treasuries, corporate bonds, single-name credit default swaps (CDS), and bond funds. Specifically for CDS, the report points out that some measures of CDS market liquidity have remained stable or point to improvements, while other measures show a reduction in activity. Interdealer trade activity in CDS has declined after 2010, but dealer-customer activity has remained stable.

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ISDA Publishes Saudi Arabia Netting Opinions

ISDA has published new legal opinions that recognize the enforceability of close-out netting under regulations published by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) earlier this year. SAMA’s netting regulations were published in February, meaning all Group-of-20 jurisdictions now recognize the enforceability...

Get Ready for the ISDA Notices Hub

No one wants to have to terminate a derivatives trading relationship – that usually means a counterparty has failed to make a payment or has become insolvent. At an already stressful time, the last thing anyone needs is to experience...

ISDA Publishes Paper on SFDR Review

On June 23, ISDA and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) published a position paper on the review of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The paper acknowledges that the SFDR needs to be revised in line with...