Template:M summ Credit Derivatives 1.16

A simple enough idea, you would think, and quite an important one, seeing as it is the date that the consequences of a Credit Event flow. But how the ISDA’s crack drafting squad™ let its fantastical obsession with determining the future run.

In one sense, given how litigationey credit derivatives are, the ’Squad probably felt it had little choice but to embrace its inner pedant — better, the thinking goes, to be exasperated than sued — but there comes a point where pettifoggerous overengineering becomes an unbearably oppressive weight on the poor sods in operations and the legal eagles who have to manage these contingencies should they come about. For sure, they should not come about very often, but when the do it will be a hair-on-fire moment, and the last thing any junior desk lawyer will want is to figure out what the hell Event Determination Event means, from this tangled skein, with the head of trading, three credit officers and her line manager breathing down her neck.