Briefs

JOHN MAIR

The group financial crime director at Lloyds TSB Group, John Mair, left the firm in late February. At Lloyds, he had established a new groupwide function for policy, strategy and leadership, and developed strategic and operational methodologies for group divisions totalling 80,000 staff. He was accountable to the executive committee of the firm for UK and international exposures. Mair is also chairman of the British Bankers' Association Money Laundering Advisory Group and a member of the HM Treasury Money Laundering Advisory Committee. No information on his future plans was available at press time.

Isda issues follow-up to Novation Protocol

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association launched a second protocol for trade assignments in the credit and interest rate derivatives markets on February 1. The provisions of the Isda Novation Protocol II (NPII) are exactly the same as the September 2005 Novation Protocol which addressed confirmation backlogs associated with the transfer of derivatives trades to third parties. However, for legal reasons the first protocol had to remain open for only a finite period, whereas the NPII can remain open on a permanent basis – hence its being dubbed an 'evergreen' protocol. "New funds are springing up all the time," explains an official at Isda in New York. "We wanted to give them the same provisions as the funds that signed up to the 2005 protocol."

Both protocols amend Isda's original Master Agreement, dating from 1989 and last revised in 2002. They enable counterparties that wish to assign, or novate, trades to a third party to provide written confirmation by e-mail; previously they had to do so offline. "The protocol streamlines the process of transferring trades to same-day execution," says Isda.