ISDA and SIFMA Response to G-SIB Surcharge Framework Consultation

On January 16, ISDA and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) submitted a response to a consultation by the US Federal Reserve on proposed changes to the G-SIB surcharge.

The response raises concerns that the revised G-SIB surcharge would lead to inappropriately high capital requirements for banks offering client clearing services, potentially discouraging them from participating in this business and contravening a long-standing policy objective to promote central clearing.

Specifically, the response argues that client derivatives transactions cleared under the agency model should not be included in the complexity and interconnectedness categories of the G-SIB surcharge calculation. Failure to make this change would raise capital requirements across six G-SIBs that contributed to a QIS by $5.2 billion.

The associations also recommend:

  • The standardized approach for counterparty credit risk alpha factor should not be included in the interconnectedness indicator calculations.
  • Cross-jurisdictional activity indicators should not include derivatives exposures. At a minimum, derivatives exposures should be net of cash and non-cash collateral in the cross-jurisdictional activity indicators.

Documents (1) for ISDA and SIFMA Response to G-SIB Surcharge Framework Consultation

10 Years of the ISDA SIMM

As the derivatives industry prepared for the September 2016 implementation of initial margin requirements for non-cleared derivatives, one challenge stood out: counterparties needed to agree on the amount of initial margin to be exchanged. But if each firm developed its...

Expanding the Universe of Eligible VM

ISDA conducted a series of interviews with buy- and sell-side firms to understand the drivers of a growing use of non-cash assets as variation margin (VM) for non-cleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives and the barriers that remain to expanding the use...

ISDA Response on Hedge Accounting Guidance

On August 14, ISDA responded to an exposure draft from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). ISDA broadly supports the FASB’s proposed targeted improvements to hedge accounting, including allowing interest rate hedging of held-to-maturity (HTM) debt securities, recognizing all Secured...

Joint Response to EBA Consultation

On August 12, ISDA and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) responded to the European Banking Authority’s discussion paper on certain taxonomy key performance indicators (KPIs) and other aspects of the Disclosures Delegated Act  under Article 8 of...