Category Archives: Swap Reform

Countdown Begins for SEC Swap Reform Implementation

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For any of you veteran Dodd Frankers out there – drum roll! – the SEC have just published their Final Rules for the ‘Cross-Border Application of Certain Security-Based Swap Requirements’ in the Federal Register.

Five years or so ago everyone would have been all over this but I wouldn’t be surprised now if folks have completely forgotten this was ever coming and that one day they might need to register to be a Security-Based Swap Dealer and so let me explain.

Wind back the clock to 2010 when the Dodd Frank Act was signed into legislation (yes, it really was that long ago) and you may recall that Dodd Frank divides regulatory authority of swap reform between the CFTC and the SEC – unhelpfully, there is no one-stop-shop like there largely is with ESMA and EMIR. Continue reading →

EMIR – Aren’t We Done Yet?

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“Haven’t we finished EMIR?”

“I mean, 2012, that stuff is 3 years old right?”

And so my meaningful conversation in the pub went on, but the truth is, in terms of what’s in place and actually up and running, we’ve really only just scratched the surface and I felt compelled to explain why.

As a Consultant, your high-level analysis doesn’t get much higher than a Road Map (other than your pub analysis of course! 🙂 ) but for EMIR and European OTC derivative reform, we can go one step better and wind back the clock to the September 2009 G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, where one short statement changed the World forever for OTC derivatives:

“All standardized OTC derivative contracts should be traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms, where appropriate, and cleared through central counterparties by end-2012 at the latest. OTC derivative contracts should be reported to trade repositories. Non-centrally cleared contracts should be subject to higher capital requirements.” Continue reading →