Interpretation - CSA Provision

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1995 ISDA Credit Support Annex (English Law)
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Paragraph 1 in a Nutshell

Use at your own risk, campers!
1 Interpretation
Capitalised terms not otherwise defined are defined in Paragraph 10. This Annex prevails over the Schedule, and Paragraph 11 prevails over the rest of this Annex. “Transfer” means, for cash, payment and, otherwise, delivery.

Full text of Paragraph 1

Paragraph 1. Interpretation

Capitalised terms not otherwise defined in this Annex or elsewhere in this Agreement have the meanings specified pursuant to Paragraph 10, and all references in this Annex to Paragraphs are to Paragraphs of this Annex. In the event of any inconsistency between this Annex and the other provisions of this Schedule, this Annex will prevail, and in the event of any inconsistency between Paragraph 11 and the other provisions of this Annex, Paragraph 11 will prevail. For the avoidance of doubt, references to “transfer” in this Annex mean, in relation to cash, payment and, in relation to other assets, delivery.
The varieties of ISDA CSA
Subject 1994 NY 1995 Eng 2016 VM NY 2016 VM Eng 2018 IM Eng
Preamble Pre Pre Pre Pre Pre
Interpretation 1 1 1 1 1
Security Interest 2 - 2 - 2
Credit Support Obligations 3 2 3 2 3
Transfers, Calculations and Exchanges - 3 - 3 -
Conditions Precedent, Transfer Timing, Calculations and Substitutions 4 - 4 - 4
Dispute Resolution 5 4 5 4 5
Holding and Using Posted Collateral 6 - 6 - 6
Transfer of Title, No Security Interest - 5 - 5 -
Events of Default 7 6 7 6 7
Rights and Remedies 8 - 8 - 8
Representations 9 7 9 7 9
Expenses 10 8 10 8 10
Miscellaneous 11 9 11 9 11
Definitions 12 10 12 10 12
Elections and Variables 13 11 13 11 13
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Content and comparisons

Big change between 1995 and 2016 is the addition of Paragraph 1(b) in the 2016 VM CSA, rabbiting on about Other CSAs, Covered Transactions and so on.

Summary

A paragraph of unremarkable, if unnecessary, throat-clearing, the “definitions and inconsistency” clauses are largely the same across all versions of the CSA.

“Transfer”

With one exception: the English law versions, but not the New York law ones, are marred by a bizarre for the avoidance of doubt rider which is both a non sequitur — no one was talking about “transfers” here, much less was in any particular state of doubt about them — but also an own goal: rather than avoiding doubt, this rider does nothing quite so much as introduce it.

Wait: was I meant to be doubting something here? Should I have been confused? Have I missed something?

There is nothing a cheerful attorney likes more than to worry about things, and she will toss sleeplessly for nights on end, fully occupied by questions such as — is “delivery” of cash different from “payment” of it? Is there something legally significant about “payment” that I somehow missed, in Banking Law 302, in 1989?

Tell your legal eagles to relax. It won’t do any good, but you can tell them. To the best the JC can figure out, all this means is that a Transferor must physically part with its collateral, handing it bodily over to the Transferee.

There is an interesting question as to what this might mean if your counterparty is also your banker, and you direct it to transfer credit support into the bank account you maintain with it, meaning that legally the counterparty hasn’t done anything with the cash at all — not an unusual scenario, should you be a hedge fund and the counterparty your prime broker — but this will set your legal eagles off again, and we don’t want that. We are just getting started.

Nomenclature

Being an annex to an ISDA Master Agreement, references to the “Agreement” means that particular ISDA Master Agreement; the “Annex” is the credit support annex and, if you were pedantic enough that you really felt the need to refer to it, the “Schedule” is the schedule to the ISDA Master Agreement.

See also

Template:M sa 1995 CSA 1

References

ISDA 1995 English Law Credit Support Annex


In a Nutshell Section 1:

1 Interpretation
Capitalised terms not otherwise defined are defined in Paragraph 10. This Annex prevails over the Schedule, and Paragraph 11 prevails over the rest of this Annex. “Transfer” means, for cash, payment and, otherwise, delivery.
view template

1995 CSA full text of Section 1:

Paragraph 1. Interpretation
Capitalised terms not otherwise defined in this Annex or elsewhere in this Agreement have the meanings specified pursuant to Paragraph 10, and all references in this Annex to Paragraphs are to Paragraphs of this Annex. In the event of any inconsistency between this Annex and the other provisions of this Schedule, this Annex will prevail, and in the event of any inconsistency between Paragraph 11 and the other provisions of this Annex, Paragraph 11 will prevail. For the avoidance of doubt, references to “transfer” in this Annex mean, in relation to cash, payment and, in relation to other assets, delivery.
view template

Related Agreements
Click here for the text of Section 1 in the 1995 English Law CSA
Click here for the text of Section 1 in the 2016 English Law VM CSA
Click here for the text of the equivalent, Section 1(a) in the 2016 NY Law VM CSA
Comparisons
1995 CSA and 2016 VM CSA: click for comparison
2016 VM CSA and 2016 NY Law VM CSA: click for comparison

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.


Nomenclature: Being an annex to an ISDA Master Agreement, references to the “Agreement” means that particular ISDA Master Agreement; the “Annex” is the 1995 CSA and, if you were pedantic enough that you really felt the need to refer to it, the “Schedule” is the schedule to the ISDA Master Agreement.
Covered Transaction: As a concept, “Covered Transaction” only arrived in the 2016 VM CSA, in Paragraph 1(b).

Under the 1995 CSA, the neatest way of describing whether a given set of Transactions is covered or not is to say something like:

“[SPECIFY] Transactions will [not] be relevant for purposes of determining “Exposure” under the 1995 CSA.”

2016 version

Big change is the addition of Paragrpah 1(b) in the 2016 VM CSA, rabbiting on about Other CSAs, Covered Transactions and so on.