A division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission staff has issued a clarification that will allow shares of certain U.S. Treasury exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be treated as redeemable securities in a pooled investment fund and thus eligible as margin collateral for certain uncleared swap transactions. The clarification allows these instruments to qualify as eligible… Read More >>
FinTech Briefs: HSBC’s Digital Custody Platform Set for 2024 & Other News
HSBC Collaborates with Metaco HSBC officials recently announced that the international bank will launch a digital assets custody service for institutional clients that invest in tokenized securities. “Once live in 2024, HSBC’s new digital assets custody service will complement HSBC Orion, the bank’s platform for issuing digital assets, as well as HSBC’s recently launched offering… Read More >>
UMR May End DerivOps As We Know It
If your firm has not yet met the September 1 deadline for Phase 6 of the ongoing saga of the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR), you are probably not reading this blog posting. You will be up to your ears in a gargantuan effort to meet the deadline or to find a legal way to sidestep… Read More >>
Buy Side Not Ready for UMR Deadlines: Survey
A recent survey of buy-side firms by custodian banking giant State Street finds that more than 80 percent of those polled say they are not quite ready for the implementation of the uncleared margin rules (UMR) for non-centrally cleared derivatives. The UMR reforms have been driven by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and… Read More >>
Sell-Side Firms Are Reviving Key Projects: SmartStream
(Sell-side firms are reviewing and reengaging strategic projects in the wake of a pandemic that caused staff to work remotely, says Jason Ang, program manager, TLM Collateral Management, at SmartStream Technologies. This return to strategic projects amid lockdowns and re-openings means the sell side is re focusing on collateral and its importance for credit risk… Read More >>
CFTC Extends IM Deadline for Phase 5 Firms
Citing the operational challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CFTC extended the initial margin (IM) deadline for Phase 5 firms from September 2020 to September 2021, but sidestepped moving the IM deadline for Phase 6 firms. Phase 5 firms now have another year to comply with the IM requirements for uncleared swaps under the regulatory… Read More >>
SIMM Is Riding Out the Volatility Storm: ISDA
The global, economic tsunami caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is, among other things, spurring questions about the best way firms can calculate initial margin (IM), given the recent onset of wildly volatile financial markets. As you will recall, IM is essential for firms that engage in derivative transactions that are not centrally cleared. Firms are… Read More >>
AcadiaSoft & CloudMargin Take On UMR Compliance
With the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR) in mind, AcadiaSoft, a vendor of collateral management offerings for non-cleared derivatives, has launched a technology partnership with CloudMargin, maker of a cloud-based collateral management workflow tool, to provide a one-stop solution for the front-to-back office processes of collateral and margin management. The collaboration coincides with the just announced… Read More >>
Regulators Delay IM Deadline for Some Phase 5 Firms
As some derivatives industry participants expected, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commissions have made changes to the deadline structure for Phase 5 of the initial margin (IM) implementation of the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR). The regulators have essentially split off a segment of Phase 5 — those firms… Read More >>
New CFTC Chairman Faces Long To-Do List
Heath P. Tarbert, the Acting Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, has won Senate confirmation to be the next chairman of the CFTC, and will face regulatory concerns ranging from finishing Dodd-Frank reforms to the emergence of instruments based on crypto-currencies during his term, slated to last until April 2024. Following the… Read More >>
