ISDA®
INTERNATIONAL SWAPS AND DERIVATIVES ASSOCIATION, INC.

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release Friday, April 23, 2010

For More Information, Please Contact:

San Francisco Press Room: +1 415–772–5422 (April 21 - April 23, 2010)

Rebecca O'Neill, ISDA London, +44 203 088 3586, roneill@isda.org 

Cesaltine Gregorio, ISDA New York, +1 212-901-6019, cgregorio@isda.org

Donna Chan, ISDA Hong Kong, +852 2200 5906, dchan@isda.org 

 

ISDA 2010 Operations Benchmarking Survey Highlights Improvements in Post-Trade Processing

 

SAN FRANCISCO, Friday, April 23, 2010The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) released the results of the 2010 Operations Benchmarking Survey today at its 25th Annual General Meeting in San Francisco.

 

The Survey shows the results of industry investment in infrastructure over the past several years. The confirmation process, for example, has been automated to the point where 99 percent of eligible credit default swaps are confirmed electronically, compared with 95 percent last year. Similarly, 77 percent of eligible interest rate derivatives are confirmed electronically compared with 61 percent last year.

 

Infrastructure improvements are also reflected in the continuing decrease in confirmations outstanding. Credit derivatives, for example, show an average across all respondents of 1.1 business days’ worth of aged outstanding confirmations, compared with 3.8 business days in last year’s Survey. Equity derivative confirmations outstanding also fell, to 7.6 business days compared with 9.2 last year. To put these numbers in perspective, confirmations outstanding in 2006 were 12.9 business days for credit derivatives and 15.1 business days for equity derivatives.

 

“The results of the 2010 ISDA Operations Benchmarking Survey illustrate the significant progress that ISDA and the industry have made to build a stronger and more resilient operational infrastructure for the privately negotiated derivatives business,” said Robert Pickel, ISDA Executive Vice Chairman. “Progress will continue as the industry works proactively and cooperatively with regulators and policy makers globally.”

 

 

About ISDA

ISDA, which represents participants in the privately negotiated derivatives industry, is among the world’s largest global financial trade associations as measured by number of member firms. ISDA was chartered in 1985, and today has over 820 member institutions from 57 countries on six continents. These members include most of the world’s major institutions that deal in privately negotiated derivatives, as well as many of the businesses, governmental entities and other end users that rely on over-the-counter derivatives to manage efficiently the financial market risks inherent in their core economic activities.  Information about ISDA and its activities is available on the Association's web site: www.isda.org.

 

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