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.
Documents (1) for ISDA Margin Survey Year-End 2018
Latest
ISDA In Review – September 2026
A compendium of links to new documents, research papers, press releases and comment letters published by ISDA in September 2026.
ISDA Digital Assets Forum Opening Remarks
ISDA Digital Assets Forum Washington, DC October 6, 2026 Opening Remarks Scott O’Malia, CEO, ISDA Good morning, and a very warm welcome to the ISDA Digital Assets Forum. Thanks for joining us today, and a special thank you to...
Assessing Tokenized MMFs as Eligible Collateral
Distributed ledger technology and digital assets have matured from their early stages to solutions capable of addressing longstanding inefficiencies in collateral management. Tokenized money market funds (TMMFs) represent a particularly promising area for the application of this technology, combining the...
Response to EC on Carbon Accounting
On October 5, ISDA responded to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) survey, drawing on input from five member firms across the banking, exchange and market-data sectors. The response highlighted broad support for internationally recognized carbon...
