Industry association

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Those self-appointed keeper of the various flames of the different cottages that make up our industry. Traditionally thought of as bland, sleepy places, they are from time to time cast into the terrible glare of publicity, which generally doesn’t play out too well for them.

• ISDA: These days, probably the daddy, and copped less flack in the fallout from the CDO scandal than you might have expected. Executives from the BBA looked on enviously at the lack of attention ISDA garnered. Publishes the ISDA Master Agreement and loads and loads of tedious protocols
• FIA: The Futures Industry Association, an American association of exchange-traded derivatives fans, who recently gobbled up their British counterparts, the Futures and Options Association.
• ISLA: International Securities Lending Association. The 2010 GMSLA and its American cousin the Master Securities Lending Agreement
• ICMA: International Capital Markets Association. Repos are their main bag. They publish the GMRA and MRA. Once were called the Bond Market Association
• BBA: the British Bankers’ Association. Their main contribution to the world of finance was, ah, LIBOR. Oh dear. Oh, dear, oh dear.

Fun fact: the collective noun for a group of industry associations — seldom used, because so rare and disconsolate are the circumstances in which they get together — is a torpidity.

See also

• Collective nouns