‘Targeted Touchdown’ and ‘Partial Liftoff’: Post-Crisis Dispute Resolution in the OTC Derivatives Markets and the Challenge for ISDA*

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1297-1328 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Biggins
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Resolution ◽  
Trade Association ◽  
Regulatory Regime ◽  
Over The Counter ◽  
Otc Derivatives ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Derivatives Markets

Since the 1980s, influential participants in the niche over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets have sought to encourage contractual standardization in the industry to mitigate the potential for unforeseen legal interruptions and ensure the enforceability of OTC derivatives contracts. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), a trade association and standard-setter, has spearheaded this effort; resulting in the creation and sustenance of a highly successful transnational private regulatory regime (TPRER). Most notably, ISDA has generated a standardized boilerplate contract for OTC derivatives, known as the ‘ISDA Master Agreement’. However, the TPRER within which the ISDA Master Agreement operates displays some intriguing features and paradoxes. Chief amongst these paradoxes is that, while this TPRER appears at first glance to be highly legalistic and formal, indications are that rates of formal litigation between members of the regulatory regime have traditionally been low relative to the size of the market (the total notional amount of OTC derivatives contracts outstanding at the end of 2011 was estimated at US$648 trillion).

The Politics and Practices of Central Clearing in OTC Derivatives Markets

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Financial Markets ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Regulatory Change ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Risk Modeling ◽  
Risk Models ◽  
Over The Counter ◽  
Otc Derivatives ◽  
Derivatives Markets ◽  
Policy Shifts

This chapter focuses on the unintended consequences of the post-crisis mandate that over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives be cleared through centralized clearinghouses in an effort to reduce counterparty and systemic risk. Although central clearing has been widely implemented, it has reproduced many of the same characteristics of financial markets that contributed to the 2008 crisis: concentrated risk, moral hazard, and a reliance on faulty risk models. What accounts for the recalcitrance of the OTC derivatives market to a regulatory change? The chapter argues that focusing on the technologies and practices used to govern derivatives markets helps explain the absence of more radical regulatory policy shifts in derivatives regulation. Although there has been a significant shift in who regulates OTC markets, much less has changed at the level of the specific practices that govern these markets, and the chapter examines the continued reliance on netting, collateralization, and risk modeling within clearinghouses.

Regulate in Haste, Repent at Leisure: Private and Public Orderings in OTC Derivatives Markets

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Pirrong
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Over The Counter ◽  
Otc Derivatives ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Derivatives Markets

Over-the-counter derivatives were widely blamed for causing or exacerbating the financial crisis. As a result of perceived structural failings in these markets, legislators and regulators mandated substantial changes. The most notable of these changes was a requirement that most derivatives be centrally cleared. Under clearing, a central counterparty becomes a party to all contracts and guarantees performance on them. These mandates were predicated on a defective understanding of the economics of derivatives markets. The proposed reforms were fundamentally flawed because they were rooted in an institutional, rather than functional, approach to regulation.

Regulation of Swaps

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-286
Author(s):  
Alan N. Rechtschaffen
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Federal Reserve ◽  
Regulatory Regime ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Regulatory Oversight ◽  
Consumer Protection Act ◽  
Reporting Requirements ◽  
Derivatives Markets

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke classified derivatives as a “vulnerability” of the financial system that led to the financial crisis. He explained that derivatives concentrated risk within particular financial institutions and markets without sufficient regulatory oversight. The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—Dodd-Frank—constituted a seismic shift in the regulation of financial institutions and markets in a massive effort to address regulatory shortcomings in derivatives markets. This chapter discusses the Dodd-Frank regulatory regime. Topics covered include the Dodd-Frank and derivatives trading; jurisdiction and registration; clearing, exchange, capital and margin, and reporting requirements; analysis of the provisions of Dodd-Frank on derivatives trading; rationale behind the exemptions and exclusions; the Lincoln Rule; Futures Commission Merchants; and criticisms of Dodd-Frank's derivatives trading provisions.

Derivatives Markets

2019 ◽  
pp. 151-166
Author(s):  
Halil Kiymaz ◽  
Koray D. Simsek
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rate ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Credit Derivatives ◽  
Forward Rate ◽  
Fixed Income ◽  
Over The Counter ◽  
Interest Rate Options ◽  
Interest Rate Derivatives ◽  
Fixed Income Derivatives ◽  
Derivatives Markets

Interest rate derivatives markets have enjoyed substantial growth since the late 1990s. This chapter discusses the development of these markets since 2000 and introduces the most popular interest rate derivative instruments. Although forward rate agreements and interest rate swaps are important examples of over-the-counter (OTC) products, futures on interest rates and bonds are innovations of organized exchanges. Both OTC interest rate options and exchange-traded options on interest rate futures are discussed to illustrate an overlapping area of both types of derivatives markets. Participants in debt markets are also exposed to both interest rate and credit risk. To mitigate the latter risk, the OTC fixed income derivatives markets provide credit default swaps (CDSs). As credit derivatives are also a subset of fixed income derivatives, CDSs are discussed further.

Agriculturalizing finance? Data assemblages and derivatives markets in small-town New Zealand

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 989-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Henry ◽  
Russell Prince
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Futures Market ◽  
Dairy Production ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Derivatives Markets

The financialization of agriculture appears to be proceeding apace. In New Zealand, the creation of a futures market for dairy lends weight to this story. What is less well understood about the process of financialization in agriculture, however, is how exactly it is proceeding. This paper focuses on NZXAgri, an offshoot of the New Zealand sharemarket operator NZX, which is tasked with the creation of the dairy derivatives market, and on the data infrastructure that is being assembled to underpin this trading space. The making of NZXAgri has been a complex process, resulting from the dissipation of a previous agriculture data assemblage during neoliberalization, and now with multiple political and economic projects partially aligned under its banner. Meanwhile, the emerging data assemblage relies on all manner of material and immaterial relational work to produce the necessary dairy production information for consumption by international financial actors. It is this kind of assembling work that is shaping the financialization of agriculture, and it requires constant negotiation with the diverse agencies of farmers and their rural contexts. This suggests that we are seeing the agriculturalization of finance alongside the financialization of agriculture.

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