The OTC Space | Category Archive

Clarus Financial Technology Launches SDR View

May 14, 2013 by Amir Khwaja 1 Comment

London, May 14, 2013 – Clarus Financial Technology today announced the release of SDR View, its Swaps Data Repository viewer application. This is publicly available at http://www.clarusft.com/sdr-view/ The DTCC DDR trade repository has been set-up to publicly disseminate all OTC Derivatives trade activity that is required to be reported to a Swaps Data Repository (SDR) […]

EMIR and Non Financials. A “love to hate” relationship….

May 8, 2013 by Maria Leontiou 2 Comments

A really good update by Herbert Smith Freehills LLP over at Lexology about EMIR and three areas of change that will mostly affect Non Financial counterparties and the way they use derivatives. Analysis is provided on clearing obligation , along with the thresholds and the hedging exemption, risk mitigation for non cleared trades and the reporting […]

Non Financials, regulatory technical standards, risk mitigation

markit conference – the highlights

May 3, 2013 by Amir Khwaja 0 Comments

Attended the annual markit customer conference in London today, titled Financial Markets Reform. Below are some highlights, while more detail can be found here. Large turnout, at least 500 if not more. Every seat with a keypad device for voting. Four panels and a keynote by Rich Ricci, until very recently CEO of Barclays Corporate […]

News, Regulation

Some traders expect OTC volumes dip from CFTC KYC rule | IFR report

May 2, 2013 by Mihir Vaidya 3 Comments

The documentation protocols for buy-side accounts under the CFTC regulations went into effect on May 1, 2013. Despite warnings from dealers in the months leading up to the May 1st timeline, it appears that a significant percentage of buy-side firms did not sign up to the protocols (requiring them to disclose detailed information to their […]

Dodd Frank, IFR, News

buy-side, cftc, kyc, otc, swaps

UniCredit to shun US derivatives trading – FT.com

April 28, 2013 by Bill Hodgson 6 Comments

UniCredit, plus DBS in Singapore and Nordea in Sweden have all adopted a “don’t trade with the US” approach to Dodd Frank. TJ Lim, Head of Capital Markets at UniCredit announced their strategy at the ISDA AGM last week. Little known fact: TJ Lim used software called “The Blotter” at Merrill Lynch in 1992 onwards, […]

Dodd Frank, ISDA

Do clearing mandates actually work?

April 26, 2013 by Jon Skinner 3 Comments

In an environment where bilateral and cleared trades are more appropriately risk mitigated through bilateral margin, CCP margin and guarantee funds and Basel III capital, fragmentation costs and increases in systemic risk due to regulatory clearing mandates may actually outweigh systemic risk and funding and capital benefits. Why? Because mandatory clearing has fragmentation costs […]

Cleared Swap Prices versus Bi-lateral Swaps

April 25, 2013 by Amir Khwaja 3 Comments

Last month, I posted a blog titled “Analysis of Pricing of Cleared and Un-Cleared Swaps from the US DTCC SDR”. Today I would like to make a correction in one of the interesting insights I noted in that blog. Namely the point that the “The price differences between UnCleared and Cleared Swaps can be observed […]

Central Counter Party, Dodd Frank

ISDA: Be Ready for May 1 and Standard Swap Confirmation | Dodd-Frank and the Law

April 25, 2013 by Bill Hodgson 1 Comment

Useful reminder: ISDA: Be Ready for May 1 and Standard Swap Confirmation | Dodd-Frank and the Law.

Dodd Frank

More ISDA Master Agreement Amendments on the Way: ISDA Publishes DFA Exclusionary Terms and Keepwell Provisions | Regulatory Reform

April 22, 2013 by Michael Beaton 1 Comment

More ISDA Master Agreement Amendments on the Way: ISDA Publishes DFA Exclusionary Terms and Keepwell Provisions Posted on April 22, 2013 by Michael Beaton Introduction In CFTC Letter 12-17 dated 12 October 2012, the CFTC clarified that, effective immediately, it was unlawful under Section 2(e) of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) for a person that […]

CFTC, Dodd Frank, ISDA, News