Template:Isda architecture: Difference between revisions

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*there ''isn’t'' a '''{{2008ma}}'''. That’s a little running [[JC]] in-joke.<ref>Talking to yourself might not be the first sign of madness, but having ''in-jokes'' with yourself might be.</ref>  
*there ''isn’t'' a '''{{2008ma}}'''. That’s a little running [[JC]] in-joke.<ref>Talking to yourself might not be the first sign of madness, but having ''in-jokes'' with yourself might be.</ref>  
All three versions have a tri-partite form: '''Pre-printed Master''', '''{{{{{1}}}|Schedule}}''' and — well, ''this'' is controversial: for is it, or is it not, part of the {{isdama}}? — '''[[Credit Support Annex]]'''.
All three versions have a tri-partite form: '''Pre-printed Master''', '''{{{{{1}}}|Schedule}}''' and — well, ''this'' is controversial: for is it, or is it not, part of the {{isdama}}? — '''[[Credit Support Annex]]'''.
====Pre-printed master====
The first part of the trinity is the pre-printed form of {{isdama}}.
*'''Content''': The {{isdama}} has 14 “Sections” and is inviolate. It doesn’t have much to say about any particular Transaction, but just assumes you will be entering lots of them, and provides for general terms that apply to all of them. So, {{{{{1}}}|Representations}}, [[Agreements - ISDA Provision|covenants to maintain certain standards]] and supply credit information, and critically {{{{{1}}}|Events of Default}}, {{{{{1}}}|Termination Events}}, and {{{{{1}}}|Close-out}} rights. [[Close-out]] is deep ISDA lore: this is what almost all of the excitement in an ISDA negotiation is about, and there will be much more to say about it later.
*'''You don’t edit it''': You don’t, despite the [[Substance and form|darkest fears]] of your [[internal audit]] department, ever ''edit'' this document. ''Ever''. This is by quite deliberate design. Everyone in the market knows the ISDA intimately, and there is good comfort in knowing, when it comes to that terrible moment when, as the world goes to hell, you have to understand your rights and obligations, that you don't have to read the 19 pages of the pre-print as well. Even the pagination and line-layout is sacrosanct: Some connoisseurs cherish the Schedule amendment which purports to excise “the third word of the second line of limb (b) of Section {{{{{1}}}|5(a)(viii)}}”. Honestly. The {{isdama}}’s generally a .pdf, so you ''can’t''<ref>I know you ''can'', but you are forgetting about the general technical aptitude of your average ISDA [[negotiator]] who can’t figure out how to get goddamn tab stops to work.</ref> but, in any weather, you ''don’t''.<ref>“But what if we ''did''?” wails [[internal audit]]. How would you know? This is your chance to pull the [[exasperated Kermit face]]. It won’t help, of course, but you may feel better.</ref> You just don’t.
*'''You ''do'' amend it''': But, of course, an {{isdama}} is nothing without a long and pointless negotiation to amend, augment or clarify this agreement! And to be sure you can amend an ISDA, but you do this is by providing for an amendment in your ...
====ISDA {{{{{1}}}|Schedule}}====
This overlays the pre-printed master agreement. Here you specify {{{{{1}}}|Additional Termination Event}}s, add economic variables, names, addresses, add {{{{{1}}}|Tax Representations}} and ''then'', in Part 5, you are free to make any technical amendments your [[credit]] and [[legal]] [[Chicken licken|chicken lickens]] want [[for the avoidance of doubt]], and that you couldn't make because technical ineptitude and unerring market convention prevented you editing the preprinted master. That comprises your overarching {{isdama}}, though you may also have a ...
====[[Credit support arrangement]]====
The [[credit support arrangement]] usually takes the form of an annex to the {{isdama}}. It may be under English law or New York law. The  {{ukcsa}} has 11 “Paragraphs”; the {{nycsa}} — which has fiddly and rather pointless security provisions — has 13, in each case the last one being an editable schedule of {{csaprov|Elections and Variables}}. Like the {{isdama}} you don’t edit the pre-printed Paragraphs. Now in order to document a specific {{{{{1}}}|Transaction}} you will need a...
====Confirmation====
The {{{{{1}}}|Confirmation}} is the thing that actually documents a specific swap {{{{{1}}}|Transaction}}. This you ''can'' edit, to your heart’s content. There is sometimes an intermediate [[Master Confirmation Agreement]] which documents the generic terms for all, say [[equity derivative]] {{{{{1}}}|Transaction}}s.

Latest revision as of 13:46, 30 May 2023

The ISDA Master Agreement

The ISDA Master Agreement is the basic framework which applies to anyone who touches down on planet ISDA. There are three existing versions:

  • the state-of-the-art 2002 ISDA;[1]
  • the still-popular-with-traditionalists-and-Americans 1992 ISDA, and
  • the all-but-retired-but-don’t-forget-there-are-still-soldiers-in-the-Burmese-jungle 1987 ISDA[2]
  • the interesting-only-for-its-place-in-the-fossil-record-and-witty-acrostic 1985 ISDA Code; and
  • there isn’t a 2008 ISDA. That’s a little running JC in-joke.[3]

All three versions have a tri-partite form: Pre-printed Master, {{{{{1}}}|Schedule}} and — well, this is controversial: for is it, or is it not, part of the ISDA Master Agreement? — Credit Support Annex.

  1. ↑ There is no such thing as a 2008 ISDA. That was a joke on our part.
  2. ↑ Seriously: proceed with caution with one of these. 1987 ISDAs don’t have a lot of safety features a modern derivatives counterparty relies on, so only for real specialists and weirdos. Think of it like flying a spitfire rather than a 737 Max. Um, okay, bad metaphor.
  3. ↑ Talking to yourself might not be the first sign of madness, but having in-jokes with yourself might be.
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