Potential Event of Default - ISDA Provision

2002 ISDA Master Agreement A Jolly Contrarian owner’s manual™ Resources and navigation [[{{{1}}} - 1992 ISDA Provision|This provision in the 1992]] Resources Wikitext | Nutshell wikitext | 1992 ISDA wikitext | 2002 vs 1992 Showdown | 2006 ISDA Definitions | 2008 ISDA | JC’s ISDA code project Navigation Preamble | 1 • (a) (b) (c) | 2 • (a) (b) (c) (d) | 3 • (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) | 4 • (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) | 5 • 5(a) Events of Default: 5(a)(i) Failure to Pay or Deliver 5(a)(ii) Breach of Agreement 5(a)(iii) Credit Support Default 5(a)(iv) Misrepresentation 5(a)(v) Default Under Specified Transaction 5(a)(vi) Cross Default 5(a)(vii) Bankruptcy 5(a)(viii) Merger Without Assumption 5(b) Termination Events: 5(b)(i) Illegality 5(b)(ii) Force Majeure Event 5(b)(iii) Tax Event 5(b)(iv) Tax Event Upon Merger 5(b)(v) Credit Event Upon Merger 5(b)(vi) Additional Termination Event (c) (d) (e) | 6 • (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) | 7 | 8 • (a) (b) (c) (d) | 9 • (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) | 10 | 11 | 12 • (a) (b) | 13 • (a) (b) (c) (d) | 14 | Index: Click ᐅ to expand: 2002 ISDA 1992 ISDA Section Potential Event of Default in a Nutshell™ Use at your own risk, campers! “Potential Event of Default” means an event which, with the giving of notice or the passing of time, would be an Event of Default. view template Full text of Section Potential Event of Default “Potential Event of Default” means any event which, with the giving of notice or the lapse of time or both, would constitute an Event of Default. view template Related agreements and comparisons Click here for the text of Section Potential Event of Default in the 1992 ISDA Template:Isdadiff Potential Event of Default Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Content and comparisons

See especially how the inclusion of Potential Event of Default makes the much talked-about, seldom understood Section 2(a)(iii) condition to payments far more sensitive than it has any right to be.

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Summary

A Potential Event of Default is a Failure to Pay or Deliver, Breach of Agreement (or other Event of Default) with an unexpired grace period, or where the grace period has expired but the Non-defaulting Party hasn’t (yet) given a notice of default actually accelerating the default into an actual Event of Default.

That means, 2(a)(iii) defenders, that any formal breach of the ISDA Master Agreement, if notified by the Non-defaulting Party, renders the Section 2(a)(iii) conditions precedent unfulfilled, and means you can suspend performance of your obligations under all outstanding Transactions. I don’t make the rules, folks.

Actually, courtesy of that parenthetical “, or both,” it is worse even than that, though we think common courtesy (or at any rate, sense} would intervene to prevent non-notified formal breaches being acted upon. But not the literal terms of the ISDA: A formal breach — any non-compliance with its terms more grievous than a failure to provide tax certificates (that is specifically carved out) on commission suspends the other Party’s obligations until cured.

This is truly a custom more honoured in the breach than th’observance, and just as well: if ISDAs locked up every time a party was late with its annual Sox attestation only half the world’s swap financing would ever get paid.

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See also

• Events of Default under the ISDA Master Agreement
• Grace period

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