ISDA has published the second in a series of legal guidelines for smart derivatives contracts, intended to explain the core principles of ISDA documentation and to raise awareness of important legal terms that should be maintained when a technology solution is applied to derivatives trading.
The second paper summarizes the main elements of the ISDA Master Agreement, and sets out possible considerations for technology developers.
Further papers will follow that will provide more detailed analysis on other ISDA documents.
These guidelines are not intended to specify or recommend any particular approach, or address any particular technological application or project. Rather, they are intended to provide high-level guidance on the legal documentation and framework that currently governs derivatives trading, and to point out certain issues that may need to be considered by technology developers when introducing technology into that framework.
Click on the PDF below to read the paper.
The first paper – Legal Guidelines for Smart Derivatives Contracts: Introduction – is available here.
Want to know more? ISDA is offering Symposiums on Smart Contracts in London and New York:
| LONDON February 27, 2019 Agenda | Register |
NEW YORK March 6, 2019 Agenda | Register |
Documents (1) for Legal Guidelines for Smart Derivatives Contracts: The ISDA Master Agreement
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...
