Equity derivatives: Isda publishes protocol

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the trade group for the over-the-counter derivatives market, has launched an all-encompassing equity derivatives protocol, called the Isda Equity MCA Protocol, that the organization says constitutes a “significant step in a program to enhance operational efficiency in the equity derivatives markets internationally”.

The protocol, which is available publicly on Isda’s website (www.isda.org), is designed to let market participants agree to incorporate, by reference and on a multilateral basis with other adhering counterparties, the terms of any one or all of a set of Isda master confirmation agreements – the documentation used by dealers to complete transactions – that the organization has published in the past.