One Year Ago In Derivatives Week

Standardized catastrophe swap documents were getting closer to reality as an International Swaps and Derivatives Association working group labored to finish a template contract. [ISDA released its Wind Event Swap Confirmation documentation in May (DW Online, 5/12), which covered hurricanes and tornados, among other disasters. The market hasn't immediately taken off, however, because of regulatory concerns, said J. Paul Forrester, a partner at Mayer Brown in Chicago. "People are going to be a lot less interested in this until we figure out what we're doing with OTC derivatives generally," he told Derivatives Week. If activity does pick up, earthquake swaps could be the next frontier, he speculated.]