ISDA has published its latest annual margin survey, which shows that initial margin (IM) and variation margin (VM) collected by the leading derivatives market participants for their non-cleared derivatives exposures increased by 9.3% to a record $1.6 trillion at the end of 2025.

The survey – which was published during ISDA’s Annual General Meeting in Boston – shows that respondents collected $524.7 billion of IM at the end of 2025, up by 21.7% versus $431.2 billion the year before. Total VM collected grew by 4% to $1,038.8 billion from $998.7 billion.

The survey shows market participants are diversifying the scope of assets they use as collateral for non-cleared derivatives exposures. While cash continues to be most commonly used to meet VM requirements, its share of total VM received dropped to 67.6% in 2025 from 80% in 2020. Over that period, the share of government securities climbed to 20.2% from 12.7% and other securities grew to 12.3% from 7.4%. For IM, the share of government securities fell to 52.6% in 2025 from 66.5% in 2018, with US Treasury securities comprising the largest share, while other securities rose to 37.2% from 12.7%.

The survey also found that $423.5 billion of required IM was posted by all market participants to major central counterparties for their cleared interest rate derivatives and credit default swap transactions at the end of 2025, up by 8.7% compared to the end of 2024.

“More collateral than ever before is being held to cover cleared and non-cleared derivatives exposures. As the volume of collateral continues to grow, the securities financing transaction (SFT) market has become a critical tool for market participants to quickly generate high-quality liquid assets to meet their derivatives margin calls. To ensure the continued availability of this lifeline in all market conditions, ISDA has proposed a series of targeted adjustments to improve the calibration and risk sensitivity of the regulatory framework for SFTs. This includes an effective cross-product netting methodology to recognize the risk offsets in a portfolio of derivatives and SFTs under the Basel III standardized approach for counterparty credit risk,” said Scott O’Malia, ISDA’s Chief Executive.

Read the ISDA Margin Survey Year-end 2025 here.

Read an ISDA paper that identifies the key regulatory and structural issues that affect the availability of SFTs.

For Press Queries, Please Contact:

Nick Sawyer, ISDA London, +44 20 3808 9740, nsawyer@isda.org

Joel Clark, ISDA London, +44 20 3808 9760, jclark@isda.org

Christopher Faimali, ISDA London, +44 20 3808 9736, cfaimali@isda.org

Michael Milner-Watt, ISDA London, +44 20 3808 9777, mmilner-watt@isda.org

Nikki Lu, ISDA Hong Kong, +852 2200 5901, nlu@isda.org