Review of 2013: Grave new world

From collapsing equity repo rates to footnote 88, and from the leverage ratio to new clearing house liquidity rules, the year has been full of surprises, many of them unpleasant. By the end of 2013, an industry that had seemed to be back on its feet was finding out how much more it has to do. Risk staff round up the biggest stories of 2013

Clearing, execution, reporting – three elements of the reforms agreed by the Group of 20 nations in 2009 are now a reality in the US, but if the industry made it look easy to start using central counterparties (CCPs), the long-awaited arrival of swap execution facilities (Sefs) more than made up for it. Platforms were caught out by the now-infamous footnote 88, which radically expanded the scope of the rules, and all participants struggled to work out how and whether clearing could be guaranteed