High Court confirms no abuse of process or exceptional grounds for partially striking out/staying parallel English proceedings brought by a Bank in relation to a swap claim

13 January, 2021
The High Court has dismissed an Italian municipal authority’s application to strike out certain parts of the claimant banks’ particulars of claims and/or for a stay (in relation to a declaratory relief claim in connection with two interest rate swap transactions): Banca Intesa Sanpaolo SPA and Dexia Credip SPA v Commune Di Venezia [2020] EWHC … Read more

Leaving LIBOR – the ISDA Protocol and Supplement

26 October, 2020
With LIBOR due to disappear by end-2021, work has been underway to facilitate the transition from LIBOR and other IBORs to alternative risk free rates (RFRs). The derivatives market has been at the forefront of the transition and is some distance further ahead than other financial markets. In particular, ISDA has recently published the 2020 … Read more

Commercial Court grants declaratory relief to bank relating to its rights under the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement

29 September, 2020
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

ISDA pre-cessation fallback consensus: will this reduce legacy LIBOR risk in the derivatives market?

16 April, 2020
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

Commercial Court dismisses challenge to exercise of options in swap confirmations incorporating 2000 ISDA Definitions

18 March, 2020
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

ISDA to re-consult on pre-cessation fallbacks: litigation risk for legacy LIBOR contracts

06 February, 2020
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

The transition from LIBOR: FCA conduct risk warning and next steps

05 December, 2019
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