Template:M summ 2002 ISDA Applicable Close-out Rate

Truly from the I’m sorry I asked file — almost in the shoot me file. This whole game of pan-dimensional chess, with six different Applicable Close-out Rates to apply in different circumstances, is all just to work out how to accrue interest on Unpaid Amounts and Early Termination Amounts during the close-out process. Considering that the said payer of this Applicable Close-out Rate is, Q.E.D., a dead duck at the time, and is unlikely to be able to pay much of anything, let alone elevated penalty interest, it really should not have been this hard.

You get a strong sense that the pragmatists of ISDA’s crack drafting squad™ — if there are any — had well and truly tuned out and gone to the bar by the ’squad got to this definition. Looking on the bright side, at least it doesn’t mention LIBOR.

Non-Default Rate

To compare with the definition of “Default Rate”:

“Default Rate” means a rate per annum equal to the cost (without proof or evidence of any actual cost) to the relevant payee (as certified by it) if it were to fund or of funding the relevant amount plus 1% per annum. [emphasis added]

Since there is no suggestion of deftly placing one’s thumb on the scale, as there is for the Default Rate, we need not have, here, a saucy discussion about the risks of being seen as a penalty.