ISDA Letter on Canadian Business Conduct Rules

On September 28, the securities regulatory authorities of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon adopted a final rule (National Instrument (NI) 93-101 Derivatives Business Conduct) to establish a regime for the regulation of business conduct of dealers and advisors operating in the over-the-counter derivatives markets. The rule takes effect on September 28, 2024, and the final rule can be found here.

In February 2024, ISDA published a representation letter and supplement to assist market participants in complying with the rule. In addition, ISDA published a foreign dealer notice to assist foreign derivatives dealers in notifying Canadian counterparties of the required information.

On February 19, 2025, ISDA published a revised representation letter to reflect changes provided for by the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) Coordinated Blanket Order 93-930, which provided temporary exemptions from certain requirements of the Business Conduct Rules.

In addition on February 19, 2025, ISDA published an annotated representation letter reflecting guidance from the CSA.

Click on the attachments to see the representation letter and foreign dealer notice (French and English versions below).

ISDA Omnibus Canadian Representation Letter

On September 2, ISDA published the Omnibus Canadian Representation Letter, which combines previously published representation letters drafted to assist firms in compliance with Canadian trade reporting, business conduct, regulatory margin and clearing classification rules. The Omnibus Canadian Letter is designed...

Joint Response on Cross-margining

On August 31, ISDA and FIA submitted a letter to the US Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the agencies’ joint request for comment on the implementation of portfolio margining and cross-margining...