Offices; Multibranch Parties - ISDA Provision

In gory detail

1992 ISDA 10. Offices; Multibranch Parties 10(a) If Section 10(a) is specified in the Schedule as applying, each party that enters into a Transaction through an Office other than its head or home office represents to the other party that, notwithstanding the place of booking office or jurisdiction of incorporation or organisation of such party, the obligations of such party are the same as if it had entered into the Transaction through its head or home office. This representation will be deemed to be repeated by such party on each date on which a Transaction is entered into. 10(b) Neither party may change the Office through which it makes and receives payments or deliveries for the purpose of a Transaction without the prior written consent of the other party. 10(c) If a party is specified as a Multibranch Party in the Schedule, such Multibranch Party may make and receive payments or deliveries under any Transaction through any Office listed in the Schedule, and the Office through which it makes and receives payments or deliveries with respect to a Transaction will be specified in the relevant Confirmation. (view template)

2002 ISDA 10. Offices; Multibranch Parties 10(a) If Section 10(a) is specified in the Schedule as applying, each party that enters into a Transaction through an Office other than its head or home office represents to and agrees with the other party that, notwithstanding the place of booking or its jurisdiction of incorporation or organisation, its obligations are the same in terms of recourse against it as if it had entered into the Transaction through its head or home office, except that a party will not have recourse to the head or home office of the other party in respect of any payment or delivery deferred pursuant to Section 5(d) for so long as the payment or delivery is so deferred. This representation and agreement will be deemed to be repeated by each party on each date on which the parties enter into a Transaction. 10(b) If a party is specified as a Multibranch Party in the Schedule, such party may, subject to clause (c) below, enter into a Transaction through, book a Transaction in and make and receive payments and deliveries with respect to a Transaction through any Office listed in respect of that party in the Schedule (but not any other Office unless otherwise agreed by the parties in writing). 10(c) The Office through which a party enters into a Transaction will be the Office specified for that party in the relevant Confirmation or as otherwise agreed by the parties in writing, and, if an Office for that party is not specified in the Confirmation or otherwise agreed by the parties in writing, its head or home office. Unless the parties otherwise agree in writing, the Office through which a party enters into a Transaction will also be the Office in which it books the Transaction and the Office through which it makes and receives payments and deliveries with respect to the Transaction. Subject to Section 6(b)(ii), neither party may change the Office in which it books the Transaction or the Office through which it makes and receives payments or deliveries with respect to a Transaction without the prior written consent of the other party. (view template)

Commentary

Paragraph 10 of the ISDA Master Agreement allows parties to specify whether they are multibranch parties or not.

Electing “multibranch party” status allows a counterparty to transact swap confirms out of various different branches of the same legal entity. Details fans will immediately note that, from the point of view of legal and corporate philosophy — surely a subject dear to every attorney’s heart — the differing branches of a legal entity have no distinct legal personality any more than does a person’s arm or leg have different personality from her head. So being a “multibranch” party seems immaterial.

Taxation

Those details fans will have overlooked the strange, parallel universe of taxation. Here it is presence and not legal personality is important. Specifying that your counterparty may trade from its offices in, for example, Prague, Kabul or The Sudan may impact the tax payable on payments under the relevant transactions under the ISDA. Where both parties are multibranch parties and have numerous overseas branches, a complex multilateral analysis of all the different permutations is assured.

Quoth, elegantly, the a wise man (now departed):

“The risk for a counterparty is essentially a withholding tax gross-up risk. If withholding tax arises in relation to a payment made to a counterparty through our NYK office, and the counterparty hasn’t provided us with evidence of an exemption from withholding, the counterparty may argue that we may be obliged to gross-up the payment on the basis that, but for our failure to disclose to them that payments may be made from NYK, they would have provided evidence of their exemption. So, by failing to disclose that USD payments will originate in NYK, we make a misrepresentation by omission of something that may be material to the counterparty.”

“So you end up in a double-jeopardy, in that counterparties may refuse to make a US Payee Tax Representation on the grounds that, in the absence of the disclosure that NYK is our settlement centre, there’s nothing to convince them that payments will be made to them (as Payee) from NYK. So, no Payee Tax Representation (or W-8BEN form) + no multibranch election = potential withholding tax gross up by us. And/or a possible Misrepresentation Event of Default”.

“Of course there are other ways to get around it: disclosure of the branch in a Confirmation (operational risk, and of no use in electronically booked txns), or more detailed reps in Part 5 - but none is as simple or uncomplicated as simply putting “New York” in the Multibranch election”

Netting

While, by dint of the legal personality, it wouldn’t make any difference under English or New York law, and really shouldn’t anywhere else, there are those jurisdictions which are not so theroetically pure in their conceptualisation of the corporate form. Your counterparty may have the misfortune to be incorporated in such a place.

If so, the validity of close-out netting against that entity may indeed depend on the branch from which it transacts - and indeed there is a possibility that the governing law of the jurisdiction of the branch may endeavour to intervene (particularly relevant if it has assets). Another reason, perhaps, to disapply the “multibranch party” for a counterparty incorporated in such a jurisdiction. The way to check this is at the netting opinion review sheet contains the following question:

Does the opinion confirm that close-out netting under the agreement is enforceable notwithstanding the inclusion of branches in non-netting jurisdictions? Yes/No