Template:Isda 3(b) summ: Difference between revisions

From The Jolly Contrarian
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Created page with "{{subst:M summ 2002 ISDA 3(b)}}")
 
No edit summary
Line 11: Line 11:
So, let’s say it turns out your counterparty ''is'' lying; there is a pending private [[event of default]] it knew about and you didn’t. Now what are you going to do? Righteously detonate your contract on account of something of which ''by definition you are ignorant''?
So, let’s say it turns out your counterparty ''is'' lying; there is a pending private [[event of default]] it knew about and you didn’t. Now what are you going to do? Righteously detonate your contract on account of something of which ''by definition you are ignorant''?


Have fun, counselor.
Have fun, counsellor.

Revision as of 16:16, 13 October 2023

Can you understand the rationale for this representation? Sure.

Does it do any practical good? No.

A No EOD rep is a classic loo paper rep: soft, durable, comfy, absorbent — super cute when a wee Labrador pub grabs one end of the streamer and charges round your Italian sunken garden with it — but as a credit mitigant or a genuine contractual protection, only good for wiping your behind on.

Bear in mind you are asking someone — on pain of them being found in fundamental breach of contract — to swear to you they are not already in fundamental breach of contract. Now, how much comfort can you genuinely draw from such promise? Wouldn't it be better if your credit team did some cursory due diligence to establish, independently of the say-so of the prisoner in question, whether there are grounds to suppose it might be in fundamental breach of contract?

Presuming there are not — folks tend not to publicise their own defaults on private contracts, after all — the real question here is, “do I trust my counterparty?” And to that question, any answer provided by the person whose trustworthiness is in question, carries exactly no informational value. All cretins are liars.[1]

So, let’s say it turns out your counterparty is lying; there is a pending private event of default it knew about and you didn’t. Now what are you going to do? Righteously detonate your contract on account of something of which by definition you are ignorant?

Have fun, counsellor.

  1. I know, I know.