Global policymakers are pushing back the introduction of new margin requirements for derivatives trades that are not centrally cleared.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Wednesday published revisions to their framework for setting margin requirements for non-centrally cleared derivatives. As well, they announced that they are pushing back implementation until the fall of 2016.
Regulators have decided to delay the beginning of the phase-in period for collecting and posting initial margin on non-centrally cleared trades from December 2015 to September 2016. And, the full phase-in schedule has also been adjusted to reflect this nine-month delay, they note.
The delay reflects the complexity of implementing the framework, the Basel Committee and IOSCO say. And, they indicate that they will monitor the progress of implementation to ensure that the requirements are adopted consistently across products, jurisdictions and market participants. This includes monitoring domestic rule-making as well as considering guidance on the validation and backtesting of models for margining, they note.
The regulators also say that they plan to work with industry as market participants develop the models that will be required to comply with the margin requirements. “This engagement will help ensure that emerging quantitative initial margin models are consistent with the framework,” they note; but they do not intend to explicitly review, or approve, any initial margin model.