ISDA Letter on Reform of UK EMIR

On December 22, 2022, ISDA CEO Scott O’Malia sent a letter and accompanying note to HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England with recommendations to reform the UK European Market Infrastructure Regulation intragroup transaction exemption and the equity options exemption for variation margin and initial margin.

ISDA proposes that there should be permanent intragroup exemptions from margin and clearing requirements for over-the-counter derivatives between UK and non-UK group companies, which do not depend on equivalence determinations in respect of non-UK countries. The note presents a set of reforms that would give the industry clarity and would remove a cliff edge for some firms at the end of 2023. The letter also urges UK authorities to permanently exempt single-stock options and equity index options from margin requirements, and to communicate plans early to firms that otherwise face an uncertain implementation period.

Response to FCA on Commodity Derivatives Clearing

On April 9, ISDA, the Commodity Markets Council Europe (CMCE), Energy Traders Europe (ETE) and FIA jointly responded to Chapter 7 of the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Quarterly Consultation CP26/8 on increasing the clearing threshold for commodity derivatives under the UK...

Response on EC’s SFR Proposal

On April 9, ISDA published technical comments on the European Commission’s (EC) proposed Settlement Finality Regulation (SFR) as it applies to designated EU systems and registered third-country systems. One significant concern is that the scope of insolvency protections provided to...

Natixis CIB Adopts ISDA’s DRR

ISDA has announced that Natixis CIB has adopted ISDA’s Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) solution, enabling the bank to meet regulatory reporting requirements more efficiently and accurately. The ISDA DRR uses the Common Domain Model (CDM) – an open-source data standard...

Paper on MIFIR PTT

On April 7, ISDA, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the European Banking Federation (EBF) published a paper on proposals relating to post-trade transparency (PTT) under the Markets in Financial Instruments...