ISDA, SIFMA and other trade associations recently published a letter addressed to BCBS and IOSCO, which makes very interesting and important recommendations for the remaining phases of the IM implementation required under Uncleared Margin Rules. (full letter here). Background Uncleared margin rules (UMR) required Phase 1, 2 and 3 firms, with >$3 trillion, >$2.25 trillion […]

What could cause a Rates CCP to lose €100m from the Default Fund? We look at 10y IRS in NOK vs SEK. We find that liquidity add-ons prevent very large positions from being under-margined. Nevertheless, we present a scenario that causes a €74m loss. And then we explain why we really shouldn’t worry about it! […]

It is a year since we last looked at the Capital and RWA of European banks, so today I will look at what the past year’s data shows. Background One of the lessons learned from the Great Financial Crisis was that Banks were under capitalised commensurate to their risk exposure; leading to new Basel III […]

Last year we wrote about Capital Ratios and Risk Weighted Assets for Tier 1 US Banks and that blog remains popular to this day. Today I will provide an update using the latest quarterly figures, to see if the trend we observed with US Banks increasing capital and reducing RWA has continued into 2018. Background The Basel […]

Introduction A core component of managing bilateral exposures is CVA – Credit Valuation Adjustment. The grandfather of all XVAs, it describes the change in exposure we have to a counterparty as a result of changes in both the mark-to-market of a derivative and the change in credit-worthiness of our counterparty. Today, we’ll look at the […]

A new study funded by ISDA on Margin Requirements for Non-cleared Derivatives authored by Professor Rama Cont of Imperial College London, was the topic of much comment and debate at the ISDA AGM. It was also covered extensively in the press, see CFTC, Treasury officials boost ISDA push for IM revamp and ISDA faces member backlash […]

FRTB Calculations directly from Excel. What-If analysis of new trades via quick trade entry. We use the CRIF format to make entry of trade portfolios simple. FREE 14-day trials available here. Background FRTB in Excel from Clarus calculates the capital requirements for your portfolio in Excel. We also check whether risk factors are modellable. The […]

Settle to Market is a recent innovation in derivatives trading. It has helped banks reduce regulatory capital and derivatives exposures. We look at STM in detail and compare it to collateralisation. The CFTC have also issued guidance on the subject. What You Need To Know Settle to Market (STM) treats Variation Margin at CCPs as […]

Margin Calculations directly from Excel Are you using LCH SMART, CME CORE or ASX Online? Would you prefer to use Excel? For IM & VM Calcs, What-ifs, Optimize and more 14-day trials are available to members and clients Background CCPs provide software tools for their members and clients to estimate initial margin requirements. Generally these […]

Regulations can only take us so far in improving our markets. Industry Standards to cope with conflicts of interest are therefore being created by the FMSB and backed by all large market players. Swap-pricing tied to the issuance of new bonds is a complex area that the FMSB is creating Standards for. We take a […]