The International Swaps Derivatives Association (ISDA) and Markit have jointly released ISDA Amend, a technology solution that helps swap market participants to use ISDA's Dodd-Frank (DF) Protocol to comply regulatory requirements.
The DF Protocol, which launched on 13 August, is part of ISDA’S Dodd-Frank documentation initiative to assist with the implementation of and compliance with the regulatory requirements of the US Dodd-Frank Act. ISDA plans to launch other protocols to help simplify documentation changes.
Markit-built ISDA Amend provides a single online tool that enables swap market participants to amend multiple ISDA Master Agreements and exchange information that is needed to comply with DF Protocol rules that are applicable to OTC derivatives transactions.
Robert Pickel, ISDA's CEO, said: “ISDA is proud to lead an industry-wide initiative with Markit that will facilitate compliance with Dodd-Frank regulatory requirements."
“We believe ISDA Amend is an effective solution to automate the information-gathering process and provide sharing of submitted data and documents to permissioned counter parties.”
Swap dealers that have committed to using ISDA Amend include Barclays, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, State Street and J.P. Morgan.
Director and co-head of Markit Document Exchange (MDE) Lansing Gatrell said: “The MDE platform is uniquely suited to managing the volume of changes to documentation required by Dodd-Frank and with deadlines rapidly approaching, our solution helps the industry efficiently meet its commitments.”
ISDA recently launched a second protocol that allows market participants to efficiently amend ISDA Master Agreement tax provisions to address the effects of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
The ISDA 2012 FATCA Protocol puts the FATCA withholding tax burden on the recipient of a payment and eliminates the tax from the definition of “Indemnifiable Tax” in the ISDA Master Agreement.
The protocol launched on August 15.
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