Joint Response to FCA Consultation on Ancillary Activities Test for Commodity Derivatives Trading

On August 28, ISDA and FIA submitted a joint response to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consultation paper CP25/19 on the ancillary activities test to determine if commercial users or producers of commodities that trade in commodity derivatives, emission allowances or derivatives of emission allowances can benefit from the ancillary activities exemption from the need to seek authorization as an investment firm.

A key concern in the consultation paper was a proposal to include trading venue activity in the de minimis (annual threshold) test. ISDA and FIA argued strongly against this proposal, on the grounds it could diminish the international competitiveness of the UK commodity derivatives market, would add complexity and burden to firms applying the test and risks changing the outcome of the test, which the FCA stated was not the intention.

Documents (1) for Joint Response to FCA Consultation on Ancillary Activities Test for Commodity Derivatives Trading

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...