On 30 November 2020, the EU Parliament and Council reached agreement on Commission-proposed amendments to the BMR. In anticipation of LIBOR’s end’ 2021 demise, the amendments give the Commission to power to propose replacement for the benchmark categories: “critical” benchmarks, which influence financial instruments and contracts with an average value of at least €500 billion […]

Following the administrator’s announcement on 18 November that it would consult on its intention to cease publication of all GBP, EUR, CHFand JPY LIBOR tenors on 31 December 2021; there was ill-founded speculation that USD LIBOR would somehow be reprieved. ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) have today announced “will consult on its intention to cease the […]

On 23 November 2020, the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published a third “final” version of its draft RTS making various amendments to EMIR margining requirements. The draft (re)introduces the following amendments: Levelling the international playing field: An extension of a further three years for the “temporary” exemption from margining requirements for single-stock […]

ESMA has this morning released a public statement confirming that the EU Derivatives Trading Obligation (DTO) will continue to apply after Brexit transition. The DTO under Article 28 of MiFIR requires firms to transact certain derivatives (essentially the most liquid, standardised contracts) on an EU trading venue, or that of a third country already judged […]

The Canadian CDOR rate will merit at least a small footnote in financial history as the first IBOR over the cliff. On 12 November, the CDOR administrator Refinitiv Benchmark Services (UK) Limited announced that it will cease to calculate and publish the rate’s 6 and 12 month tenors from 17 May 2021. In the absence […]

The CFTC have published the final rule extending IM Phase 6 in today’s Federal Register. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the final rule extends the Phase 6 deadline by one year to 1 September 2022 and has a retrospective effective date of 9 December 2020. The final rule updates the April 2020 “final” rule […]

As a form of due diligence, I have to plough through such an amount of Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt “marketing” articles to have developed a deep dislike for the breed. That said, we thought it instructive to briefly remind readers of the 2021 Regulatory calendar, at least while some time remains to mitigate. Benchmark Reform The ISDA Fallbacks […]

On 23 October, the European Commission approved ESMA’s amended RTS, delaying the CSDR’s controversial settlement discipline regime until 1 February 2022. The amended RTS can be found here. Having been rubber-stamped by the Commission the RTS now enter the mandated three month period, pending non-objection by the Parliament and the Council. Despite adding to an […]

ISDA are continuing their drive to promote document digitisation with the recent release of four electronic tools that will help firms: improve their digital documentation strategy; streamline their portfolio reconciliation and dispute resolution process; update custodial onboarding for segregated accounts. These issues were deemed priority topics by ISDA members and relevant working groups, the recently […]