ISDA, AFME Respond to Dutch Ministry of Finance Consultation on Dividend Stripping

On May 28, ISDA and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) responded to the Dutch Ministry of Finance’s consultation on additional anti-dividend stripping measures, urging that the proposed rules should target only abusive arrangements and not ordinary, commercially driven capital markets transactions.

The associations argue that some proposed measures would add uncertainty, duplicate existing protections and risk harming liquidity and efficiency in the Dutch equity market. The proposed measures should not inadvertently capture ordinary derivatives-based hedging arrangements where Dutch shares are held to hedge client-facing or market risk positions. In these cases, the economic exposure to the shares may be reduced or offset as part of prudent risk management, but that does not mean the arrangement is artificial or tax driven. Treating standard hedging activity as indicative of dividend stripping would create uncertainty for legitimate derivatives and capital markets transactions.

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Documents (1) for ISDA, AFME Respond to Dutch Ministry of Finance Consultation on Dividend Stripping

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...

Response to JSCC on Clearing Fund Consolidation

On August 12, ISDA responded to the Japan Securities Clearing Corporation’s (JSCC) consultation on its proposal to consolidate clearing fund consumption, calculation and deposit segmentation across six clearing qualifications under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. ISDA members broadly support...