Latest Posts
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Mar, 13
Mechanics and Definitions of the ISDA Credit Support Annex (CSA)
Credit Support Annexes used to be the dullest of the dull. A “back-office”, operational necessity that helped reduce counterparty exposures. Now, they are intrinsic to the functioning of modern day derivatives markets and have blossomed in both number and potential complexity as a result of the Uncleared Margin Rules. If you don’t have a CSA, […]
Read moreFeb, 21Best Practices for Variation Margin
No one wants to be called in default by a CCP during stressed markets as a result of operational complexity/failures – much as ICE & Citi stated regarding March 2020: So today I follow up on our Clarus blogs (and podcast!) regarding members requirements at CCPs. For example, you can take a look at the […]
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Nov, 14
Default Simulation Exercises by CCPs
In June 2019, I wrote a blog titled, CCP Default Management Auctions, in which I covered the BIS CPMI-IOSCO “Discussion paper on central counterparty default management auctions” and explained how Clarus CHARM helps clearing members with their default management obligations, both actual and firedrill tests. One of the points in the discussion paper was on […]
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Sep, 19
ISDA SIMM – What changes in v2.6?
Version 2.6 ISDA has published ISDA SIMM v2.6 with a full re-calibration of risk weights, correlations and thresholds. The calibration period is a 1-year stress period (Sep-08 to Jun-09, the Great Financial Crisis) and the 3-year recent period ending Dec 2022 (or possibly later, but at time of writing I cannot find this specified, so am going […]
Read moreJul, 26FSB Paper on Liquidity in Core Government Bond Markets
I recently took a first look at Central Clearing of Bonds and Repos and in that blog I mentioned a Financial Statility Board (FSB) paper on Liquidity in Core Government Bond Markets. This paper analyses the liquidity, structure and resilience of government bond markets, with a focus on the events of March 2020; characterised as […]
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Jul, 25
Even More on Blocks and new rules for FX
CFTC Global Markets Advisory Committee Following up on my blog last week, there is now the recording of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC) available on youtube: There are some interesting take-aways: Showing; Elsewhere, Tradeweb and Bloomberg provided insights into the RFQ1 vs RFQ-to-many split amongst large trades. This is some really interesting data. […]
Read moreJul, 19New Block Trading Rules Will Now Start in December 2023
Those of you with long memories will recall a particular blog I wrote about Block Trading and new rules that were going to come into play: Those new rules could have come into play as early as March 2023, but they have been delayed until December 2023. As a result, we have just seen learnt […]
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May, 23
ISDA SIMM v25a the first off-cycle release
Version 2.5a ISDA has published ISDA SIMM v2.5a with a re-calibration of interest rate risk weights only. This is an off-cycle release, due to the higher interest rates volatility observed in 4Q 2022, compared to that in 2019-2021 and the stress period of Sep-08 to Jun-09; the time period used for the calibration of v2.5. Quarterly industry […]
Read moreMay, 10Is Now The Time to Optimise Your Initial Margin?
Initial Margin ISDA have just published the latest edition of the “ISDA Year-End Margin Survey”: We have covered previous versions of this survey, which are always worth a re-read because you can laugh at any predictions we made in the past! Sifting through all of those reveals that between $650-800bn in extra IM was anticipated by ISDA […]
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