The ISDA Margin Survey looks at the impact of regulatory and other changes on collateral practices, and analyzes the amount and type of initial margin (IM) and variation margin (VM) posted for non-cleared derivatives, and the IM posted for cleared transactions.

The survey finds that the 20 largest market participants (phase-one firms) collected approximately $157.9 billion of regulatory and discretionary IM for their non-cleared derivatives transactions at year-end 2018. Of this amount, $83.8 billion was collected from counterparties currently in scope of the margin regulatory requirements. A further $74.1 billion of discretionary IM was collected from counterparties and/or for transactions not currently in scope of the rules.

In addition to these amounts, phase-one firms reported they had set aside $39.4 billion of IM for their inter-affiliate derivatives transactions to meet US prudential rules at year-end 2018. Seven other market participants – four phase-two firms and three phase-three entities – provided data for the survey. The total amount of IM collected by these firms was $4.8 billion at year-end 2018.

The survey also finds that $217.9 billion in IM had been posted by all market participants to major central counterparties (CCPs) for their cleared interest rate derivatives (IRD) and credit default swap (CDS) transactions at the end of 2018.

Read the full survey by clicking on the PDF below.