Mastering the ISDA Master Agreements

About the authorPaul Harding is a graduate of London University and has worked in several UK and foreign banks in London in credit, marketing and documentation roles. Since 1990 he has been involved with OTC derivatives documentation and was a well known negotiator in the City of London with Barclays Capital Securities Limited and Hill Samuel Bank Limited where he was head of Treasury Documentation.In February 1997 he founded Derivatives Documentation Limited (http://www.derivsdocu.com) , a derivatives consultancy and project management company based in the City of London and providing negotiation, recruitment and in-house and on-line training services in derivatives documentation. Its clients include many of the world's leading banks.Paul is also the author of Mastering Collateral Management and Documentation, written in conjunction with Christian Johnson, which was published in November 2002.Paul has also written books on ISDA® documentation for credit derivatives and on repos and their master agreement documentation.

• Chapter 1Introduction to the global derivatives market (15 pages)-Size of market according to latest ISDA figures.-Estimated amount really at risk.-Main products-Main currencies.-Market users.-How a deal is done from start to finish.Chapter 2Need for and evolution of the ISDA Master Agreement (9 pages)-Inefficiency in documenting each trade in the market's early days.-Documentation standardisation introduced by ISDA from 1985.-How ISDA documentation evolved.-Product Definitions-Confirmations-Master Agreement types.Chapter 3Section by section clear analysis of the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement (95 pages).The idea is as before to have a block of ISDA Master Agreement text on one page and a clear explanation of it on the opposite page.ISDA is willing for Pearson to reproduce the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement in this format provided it pays the USD 5,000 licensing fee referred to in Section 2 above.Chapter 4Section by section clear analysis of the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement (200 pages).Same format.ISDA is willing for Pearson to reproduce the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement in this format provided it pays the USD 5,000 licensing fee referred to in Section 2 above.Chapter 5Legal issues relating to the ISDA Master Agreements (35 pages)UK issues-Gaming laws-Capacity and authority of transacting parties.-Ultra vires considerations.-the Hammersmith and Fulham case and local authorities as swaps counterparties.-Protection from case law and the 1985 Companies Act in the UK.-specialised entities e.g. insurance companies, pension funds, unit trusts, building societies.-The concept of suitability.-Enforceability of close-out netting and set-off.-Automatic Early Termination.-The ISDA collective legal opinions.-Third Party Rights.New section on US issuesChapter 6Credit issues relating to the ISDA Master Agreements (15 pages)-Addition of Specified Entities.-Specified Indebtedness variations.-Downgrade from Cross Default to cross acceleration.-Threshold Amounts.-Credit Event Upon Merger variations.-Additional Termination Events.-Set Off-Transfers.-Political risk.-The “vanilla ISDA”.Chapter 7Operational issues relating to the ISDA Master Agreements (8 pages)-Confirmations-Payments-Deliveries-Close out-Administrative matters.Chapter 8A sample 1992 ISDA Master Agreement Schedule and accompanying commentary (up to 175 pages).Chapter 9A sample 2002 ISDA Master Agreement Schedule and accompanying commentary (up to 30 pages)In each of these chapters the idea is to have a block of Schedule text on one page and a clear explanation of it on the opposite page.Chapter 10Provisions for special entity types and those sought by US counterpartiesAs per the first edition with some updating. (50 pages). To include new and additional commentary on loan-linked ISDAs, covered bond ISDAs and Hedge fund ISDAs.Chapters 8, 9 and 10 are the hub of the book because the Schedule is what negotiators actually negotiate and where they need core knowledge and awareness of possi