As the US and much of the world faces a Black Swan event in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Heath Tarbert today announced a one year extension for larger entities facing compliance with initial margin (IM) requirements for uncleared swaps, making the new compliance date September 1, 2021 […]
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 21 financial industry associations have submitted a letter on behalf of their members requesting BCBS (Basel Committee on Bank Supervision), IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions), and other global regulators to suspend the current timeline for the initial margin phase-in. The letter says this will to allow market participants […]
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert today released a statement outlining the commission’s unanimous vote last night to finalise a one-year extension of the initial margin compliance deadline for market participants with the smallest uncleared swaps portfolios. “I am committed to ensuring that initial margin remains a core risk-mitigating component of the global […]
LCH has announced that 2019 was a record year for volumes across multiple asset classes, including FX. Over $18 trillion in notional value was cleared by ForexClear, LCH’s FX derivatives clearing service, in 2019. This represents a 5% increase from the previous year. Of this total, $60.5 billion was client cleared notional, a sixfold increase […]
Citi has launched a new tool to help buy side firms cope with the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR) that are due to come into effect over the next two years. Financial institutions such as asset managers, pension funds and insurance companies are scheduled to come into scope of the regulations based on volume thresholds that […]
In a new video interview with Profit & Loss Rick Schonberg, global head of ForexClear product development at LCH, is unequivocal in expressing his view that the current credit model in the FX industry is due for a change. “The model definitely needs to change,” he says. “What’s interesting is that the BIS numbers — […]
Tradeweb Markets has announced a collaboration with two margin optimisation providers, Cassini Systems and OpenGamma, to offer clients a choice of vendor access to life-cycle cost analytics, including initial margin, collateral, clearing fees, brokerage and trading costs. The firm says its integration of margin optimisation analytics with its interest rate derivatives platform will provide institutional […]
Galen Stops charts the ups and downs of FX prime brokerage over the past 20 years and looks at how this segment of the market might be ripe for innovation going forward. Ask anyone who has been around in the FX market for the past 20 years to list the key developments that have shaped […]
A new report from Greenwich Associates argues that the incoming Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR) will fundamentally change the economics of OTC FX options trading to a point where buy side firms will increasingly trade these products on listed exchanges. “Historically, most FX options trading was done over the counter, but UMR has the potential to […]
