Derivs - Interest Rate

Droit Financial Technologies, a New York-based regulatory financial technology firm focused on over-the-counter derivatives, has made a senior hire in London as part of a European business drive.

Almost two years after Moody’s and Fitch changed their rating criteria to take account of the Bank Resolution and Recovery Directive, Standard & Poor’s has set out how it plans to build resolution regimes into its ratings.

With less than a month to go until a major global deadline for market participants to begin posting variation margin, concern has turned to clamour as buy-side officials, industry bodies and service providers have lined up to ask regulators to allow a reprieve.

Weaker than expected uptake of an ISDA protocol has left banks well behind schedule to meet the March 1 variation margin deadline and facing a “massive capacity crunch in February”, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has set out guidelines it wants authorities to follow in their frameworks used to resolve failing central counterparties (CCPs).

A letter from a top Republican Congressman in the US has asked that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen halt participation in all international agreements aimed at setting global financial regulatory standards.

Derivatives market participants should be given a relief period on variation margin rules after the slated March 1 deadline, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has said, adding its voice to a rising clamour across the industry.

The European Securities and Markets Authority wants to standardise the way that trade repositories and market participants transfer data on derivatives obligations, having warned that problems could arise under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) regulations.

TP ICAP, the firm formed in the recent merger of Tullett Prebon and ICAP, has made its first acquisition with the addition of Burton-Taylor International Consulting to its data and analytics division.

The European Union this week added to the sense that global derivatives market regulation is set for a shake-up, with the European Securities and Market Authority calling for changes to “third country” central counterparty treatment and for a softer stance on how some market participants adhere to clearing rules.

Deutsche Börse is working on a “collateralised coin” using blockchain technology, which it hopes could ease payments and the moves of collateral between the clearing members of its centralised counterparty (CCP), Eurex. The initiative follows closely on the heels of two earlier blockchain-inspired collaborative efforts that aim to ease cross-border collateral transfer and the securities settlement process.

Following Lloyds Bank's creation of the "CB markets" division, combining trading with capital markets origination, James Garvey, the division’s boss, has laid out the management team for the new structure.