We covered the significant increase in initial margin for cleared GBP Swaps in two recent blogs; How Kwasi Kwarteng has increased your IM and Rishi Sunak and the impact on GBP Swaps IM. In the first of those blogs, Chris added a brief section towards the end on variation margin and I wanted to take […]

In early October we wrote about How Kwasi Kwarteng has increased your Inital Margin, given that so much has happened in the past month, I wanted to update the GBP Swaps initial margin figures in that article. Before we start, two general points, very nicely illustrated by two The Economist covers. On the left, “Reasons […]

Initial Margin for GBP swaps has increased by up to 65% due to the mini-budget. 5 of the 6 largest ever moves in GBP rates have occurred during September 2022, since the mini-budget. We look at Initial Margin models and how IM has changed over time. It is fair to say that GBP Swap markets […]

ISDA SIMM v2.5 is effective December 3, 2022 Updated with a full re-calibration and industry backtesting Meaning Initial Margin will change for most portfolios In particular, material increases for Commodity and Credit risks To quantify the actual impact of SIMM v2.5 Clarus CHARM can run both SIMM v2.5 and v2.4 on your portfolios And do so before go-live, to […]

Total Initial Margin across the industry has now topped $1trn for the first time. Initial Margin requirements across the industry have increased by $725bn since 2016. This drives the need for more optimisation. We look at the data and benchmark the ISDA projections from way back in 2015. Capitolis First this week, a recommendation. No […]

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) produces a monthly cleared margin report for DCOs (CCPs) required to file daily initial margin with the CFTC’s Division of Clearing and Risk. The report aggregates initial margin from six DCOs: CME, ICE Clear Credit, ICE Clear US, ICE Clear Europe, LCH Ltd and LCH SA. The latest report […]

Last week the EBA published a consultation paper on its  its draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on Initial Margin Model Validation (IMMV) under the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).  This is an important and long awaited publication, particularly for the hundreds of firms in the EU that are complying with UMR IM requirements as of Sep 2021 […]

ISDA SIMM v2.4 is effective December 4, 2021 Updated with a full re-calibration and industry backtesting Including for the first time the Covid-19 Crisis time period Meaning Initial Margin will increase for most portfolio To quantify the actual impact of SIMM v2.4 CHARM can run SIMM v2.4 and v2.3 on your portfolios And do so before go-live, to […]

The UK and Europe are currently consulting on both the Derivatives Clearing and Trading Obligations. Clarus are worried that the UK consultations risks a significant loss of transparency to markets. Particularly for USD. There appears to have been silence out of the CFTC on these important subjects. Europe has proposed covering some RFRs in the […]

My recent blog on Archegos, Trade Repositories and Initial Margin, was very popular, so I wanted to do a follow up on the same two topics; transparency of derivatives and initial margin requirements. For those of you not familiar with the three letter acronym, APA, it stands for Approved Publication Arrangement which is a European […]