The Commercial Court has granted declaratory relief concerning a bank’s rights under an interest rate hedging arrangement governed by the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement: BNP Paribas SA v Trattamento Rifiuti Metropolitani SPA [2020] EWHC 2436 (Comm). This is the substantive English trial judgment in the long-running (and cross-jurisdictional) dispute between BNP Paribas S.A. (the Bank) … Read more

The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favour of a bank defending a claim brought by a foreign exchange (FX) broker seeking to recover losses incurred on FX spot transactions during the 2015 “Swiss Flash Crash”: CFH Clearing Ltd v MLI [2020] EWCA Civ 1064. In doing … Read more

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has announced the preliminary results of its re-consultation on the implementation of pre-cessation fallbacks for derivatives referenced to LIBOR (see press release). It follows an earlier consultation on pre-cessation fallbacks last year, which failed to achieve market consensus on whether or not (and if so, how) to include … Read more

The Commercial Court has dismissed a challenge to the exercise of options contained in five extendable interest rate swaps which incorporated the 2000 ISDA Definitions: Alfred Street Properties Ltd v National Asset Management Agency [2020] EWHC 397. The challenge was brought on the basis that notice was either not given by a contractually prescribed method … Read more

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (“ISDA”) announced yesterday that it will re-consult on how to implement pre-cessation fallbacks in derivatives contracts. This is an important development for financial institutions with large books of legacy LIBOR-linked products. The announcement follows an earlier consultation on pre-cessation fallbacks last year, which failed to achieve market consensus on … Read more

Over the past couple of weeks, the FCA has released two important communications in the context of the discontinuation of LIBOR, which is expected to cease after end-2021. On 19 November 2019, the FCA published a paper setting out a series of questions and answers for firms about conduct risk during LIBOR transition. Then on … Read more

The Commercial Court has granted summary judgment in favour of a bank defending a claim brought by a foreign exchange (“FX“) broker seeking to recover losses it suffered when the Swiss franc was de-pegged from the euro in 2015: CFH Clearing Limited v MLI [2019] EWHC 963 (Comm). The decision represents a robust approach by … Read more

The Court of Appeal’s judgment in BNP Paribas SA v Trattamento Rifiuti Metropolitani SPA provides further assurance that jurisdiction clauses within standard form ISDA documentation will not readily be displaced by contrary jurisdiction clauses in related contracts. The Court of Appeal gave effect to an English jurisdiction clause in an ISDA Master Agreement over an apparently competing … Read more