The Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling, has unveiled a plan to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act, which he has called a “grave mistake,” and replace it with the Financial CHOICE Act. CHOICE, in the Hensarling plan, is an acronym for Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs…. Read More >>
EU Firms Face Tight Deadline for MAR Compliance
The clock is ticking away for the Market Abuse Regulation’s (MAR) July 3 start date but there is still uncertainty about the final edict. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has only just released its Q&A guidance and is expected to publish a final report by early Q3 2016, which is cutting it close…. Read More >>
Numerix Targets Basel III Capital Calculations
Numerix Expands Oneview Risk Application Numerix, a vendor of cross-asset analytics for derivatives valuations and risk management, has just released a solution that is an expansion of its Oneview Risk application to help banks comply with the Basel Committee’s regulatory requirement for Counterparty Credit Risk (SA-CCR) Capital in time for the January 2017 implementation deadline,… Read More >>
Credit Suisse to Leverage FIS Utility
Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse will be outsourcing its post-trade futures and cleared over-the-counter derivatives operations and technology to banking and payments technology vendor FIS in order to leverage the cost savings of a utility model, bank officials say. The Derivatives Utility from FIS targets market participants “including futures commission merchants (FCMs)” that want cost-efficient… Read More >>
The Fed’s Quiet Move to Avoid Widespread Panic
Amid all the endless claptrap about interest rates, the Federal Reserve Board quietly this week proposed a rule that might help global markets sidestep widespread panic if a very large institution goes bankrupt and has lots of bilateral derivatives contracts on its books. The proposed rule would delay the immediate cancellation of qualified financial contracts… Read More >>
Blockchain’s Great Promise Faces Great Hurdles
The distributed ledger, or blockchain, as today’s hot financial services technology is also known, may lead to an Internet of Value. But first, important issues have to be resolved. So says Lael Brainard, one of the Federal Reserve’s seven governors. In a recent speech entitled “The Use of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Payment, Clearing, and… Read More >>
ISDA Offers Help for Uncleared Derivatives Margining
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has published the first in a series of documents to help market participants comply with new margining requirements for non-cleared derivatives, officials say. The 2016 Credit Support Annex for Variation Margin (VM) is described as an update of the 1994 ISDA Credit Support Annex (CSA) that will allow… Read More >>
ESMA Pries Open Derivatives Clearing
Although not all clearinghouses will be happy, the European Securities Market Authority Association (ESMA) decision to allow more choice in trading and clearing was welcomed by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Nasdaq Stock Market, which have long championed greater competition in derivatives clearing. The so-called open access rule, set out under Markets in… Read More >>
Fed Wants New Credit Limits on Top Tier Firms
Global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), of the kind whose imprudent derivatives loan policies shook the global economy, will have their credit exposure restricted under a proposed new Federal Reserve Board single-counterparty-credit-limit rule. “In the financial crisis, we learned that the largest and most complex banks and financial institutions lent or promised to pay large amounts… Read More >>
ISDA to CFTC: Exempt SEF-Compliant European Venues
In publishing a set of principles intended to help derivatives trading firms compare U.S. and European Union (E.U.) trading venues, officials at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) are asking that CFTC officials consider a new exemption for established trading venues in Europe. “If EU trading venues are determined to achieve the same objectives… Read More >>
