Encouraging the clearing of standardized derivatives has been a major priority for policy-makers. This has primarily been pursued through the implementation of clearing mandates, but other incentives also exist – netting and capital benefits, and the rollout of margining requirements for non-cleared derivatives, for example. As a result, the majority of interest rate derivatives (IRD) traded notional is now cleared.
This paper analyzes the volume of cleared derivatives to determine the impact of these incentives. In particular, the paper compares cleared notional amounts of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives with the amounts subject to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) clearing mandate. The results show that market participants clear more transactions than required under the CFTC’s clearing mandate.
Documents (1) for Actual Cleared Volumes vs. Mandated Cleared Volumes: Analyzing the US Derivatives Market
Latest
ISDA In Review – August 2026
A compendium of links to new documents, research papers, press releases and comment letters published by ISDA in August 2026.
Remove Bureaucracy from Cross-margin Approvals
Cross-margining programs play a critical role in financial markets. By ensuring margin requirements more closely reflect the actual risk of a portfolio of products, they reduce liquidity strain and improve market efficiency, both of which will become even more important...
Joint Response on CCP Resolution
On September 7, ISDA and FIA responded to a Bank of England (BOE) discussion paper on central counterparty (CCP) resolution. The associations support greater clarity on valuation capabilities prior to a crisis scenario and the boundary between recovery and resolution,...
Expanding Legal Agreement Coverage in the CDM
This paper examines the recent extension of the Common Domain Model (CDM)1 to represent two of the most significant, and previously undeveloped, areas of its legal agreement model: umbrella agreements and contract amendments. Umbrella agreements are widely used to document...
