Articles by Tom Osborn
No plans to change haircuts on US Treasury collateral, CME says
CME Group has no plans to alter haircuts on US Treasury bills, despite some concern that politicians will fail to avert a US default on October 17
Rand volatility jolts South Africa's quanto stock futures market
Currency controls in South Africa limit the ability of domestic investors to build stakes in big overseas companies. Listed quanto futures are one way round that, but the users remain exposed to currency risk – so some banks are now pushing an options…
Remembering Lehman: CCPs hardwire collapse into models
Five years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the chaos that followed is now being erased from some value-at-risk models – and clearing houses do not agree on how to prop up their margin requirements. By Tom Osborn
Fed wrong not to start QE tapering, says UBS economist
The surprise decision by the Federal Reserve last month not to scale back its quantitative easing programme will create more volatility, says economist
Officials blindsided by CFTC's Sef footnote 88, says Ferber
Senior MEP says officials from US and Europe only recognised dangers of Sef rules footnote in recent weeks
Liquidity & Funding Risk 2013: Don't rely on forward guidance, say ALM chiefs
Forward guidance alone is of little use from a liquidity planning point of view, conference hears
Longevity: Opportunity or flop?
Pension schemes are sitting on a huge amount of longevity risk, and capital markets investors could provide a home for this exposure. It looks like a tempting opportunity for bank intermediaries – but many dealers have tried and failed. Tom Osborn reports
Swap futures start-up needs dealer support, says buy side
New London-based platform has buy-side fans, but no publicly declared backing from market-makers
IsdaFix faces rival based on swap repository data
New end-of-day benchmark is "much harder to manipulate" than industry standard IsdaFix
Risk interdealer rankings 2013: Brokers
Steeled for consolidation
The slow growth of cross-product margining
The slow growth of cross-product margining
CME default fund contributions likely to rise following CFTC move
A change in CFTC rules could lead to clearing members having to increase default fund contributions at CME and other US CCPs
Eurex, CME and NYSE Liffe weigh long-dated inflation futures
Pension funds look for alternatives to OTC inflation swaps, as clearing services remain on the drawing board
Cross-margining at CME slowed by practical challenges
Only two FCMs are currently offering margin offsets between interest rate swaps and futures at CME
Tax questions cloud prospects for CME swap future and Mac swaps
Early users of CME’s deliverable swap futures contracts fear the products will be taxed as loans in some situations. And with features of those contracts being used in other new instruments, it could become an issue for the entire industry. Tom Osborn…
Emir flaws could see futures reporting delayed till 2015
Esma acknowledges industry concerns over delegated reporting provisions and confirms it is considering a one-year delay
CME confronts swap future tax fears
Some users of the CME contract have avoided taking delivery of an OTC swap over fears it would be taxed as a loan
Basel Committee may look to floors and fixed parameters
Committee may introduce new floors on internal model outputs, after a report on RWAs for credit risk in the banking book found wide variations in bank practices
Dealers ask Esma to bless Lsoc-based clearing
Industry wants to know whether an approach based on US standards will meet European requirements
CME finalising plans for swaptions clearing
Swaptions said to have passed CME’s risk committee, and may now be included in CME Clearing Europe’s application to Esma for reauthorisation
Lack of cross-border clarity could be threat to US, says CFTC’s Wetjen
Key CFTC ruling on scope of Dodd-Frank will arrive "very, very close" to July 12 expiry of current exemptive relief, Wetjen warns - and may not be finalised before that date
Substituted compliance requires global oversight, warns Iosco’s Wright
Substituted compliance unlikely to work without a global body to settle disputes, says Iosco secretary-general
EC recognises member state fears that FTT will hurt clearing
Tax liability could send CCPs "directly into insolvency" warn Czech officials in leaked document