The International Swaps and Derivatives Association took its members on a trip down memory lane last week as the trade association celebrated its 20th Annual General Meeting. The trip included a video of the ISDA chairmen over the last 20 years talking about the battles the association has won, including boosting trading volumes through standardized documentation. More cynical delegates, however, said ISDA's work is done because all the major asset classes now have standard documents and there is now only tweaking and updating left.
"There are not many mountains left to climb," said one delegate. The documentation work is now an expansion on what has gone before, he explained.
Robert Pickel, executive director and ceo of ISDA, began the conference by highlighting regulatory changes in India and improvements to U.S. netting legislation as being key events signaling the future development of the derivatives markets. Certainly, conference officials focused on regulatory issues rather than documentation of new asset classes as the hurdles ISDA will face in the future.
But in the Chairman's remarks, Jonathan Moulds, international head of global markets at Bank of America, warned product development must not be forgotten. And with panels on inflation, freight and emissions derivatives it seems there may be ample product innovation to keep the association occupied.