The Atlantis Variation
The 2008 ISDA Master Agreement, also known as the Atlantis agreement is a rumoured edition of the ISDA Master Agreement, whcih, according to legend, was almost completed in September 2008 and, if implemented, would have solved all known financial, infrastructural and regulatory challenges of derivatives trading which were dominating the market at the time. The Atlantis agreement would have consolidated documentation across a wide range of trading agreements (repo, stock lending, prime brokerage, exchange traded derivatives, physical commodities and emissions and moved the financial world into a stable state of sunlit utopia. As it was, the challenge was just too great big, exceeded its Schwarzschild radius and collapsed in on itself, leaving no trace, either of itself, counsel appointed by ISDA to coordinate the negotiation (Messrs Tubb, Fuller, Breaden, Potter, Bacon[1] or of the several thousands of lowly in-house lawyers seconded to the task of contributing to this agreement.