A&O vs Linklaters in IM platform race

Law firms are backing rival attempts to cut margin doc costs for buy side

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Two services aimed at automating a mass of derivatives contract changes – and the two big law firms that are backing them – are going head-to-head as the market gears up for a huge leap in the number of firms that need to comply with new initial margin (IM) rules.

Allen & Overy, IHS Markit and SmartDX have teamed up to develop Margin Xchange, an online platform for negotiating and executing IM agreements as data, which the parties claim will cut the cost of adhering to the rules by as much as 8