ISDA Responds to CFTC’s Consultation on Clearing Requirements in Relation to LIBOR Transition

In November, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) published a Request for Information and Comments on Swap Clearing Requirement Amendments to Account for the Transition from LIBOR and Other IBORs to Alternative Reference Rates. In this request, the CFTC asks a wide range of questions around the transition to swaps referencing alternative rates, for instance requests to derivatives clearing organizations on volumes, assessment of their ability to perform auctions or to port SOFR positions in case of a futures commission merchant default before the conversion in 2023, questions about conversion experiences, other rates like Ameribor and BSBY, pricing and liquidity of alternative reference rate products etc.

In the response, ISDA makes – in line with responses to the Bank of England and the European Securities and Markets Authority – the point that its members clear a lot of these products voluntarily already but would welcome a clearing mandate to avoid bifurcation of liquidity. We ask for international alignment and sufficient notice before a clearing requirement is enacted. ISDA also asks to exempt transactions stemming from post trade risk reduction from the clearing requirements and to keep in mind the impact of a clearing requirement on a trade execution requirement.

Documents (1) for ISDA Responds to CFTC’s Consultation on Clearing Requirements in Relation to LIBOR Transition

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...

Response on CSDD Guidelines

On August 6, ISDA responded to the European Commission’s (EC) consultation on due diligence guidelines under the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). While ISDA acknowledges that model contractual clauses can be a helpful resource for in-scope companies, there are...