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Call for papers

"September 2013, four years after Pittsburgh: What has OTC derivatives reform achieved so far?"

11-12 September 2013, Paris

About the conference

The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Banque de France are organising a conference entitled “September 2013, four years after Pittsburgh: What has OTC derivatives reform achieved so far?”, to be held in Paris on 11 and 12 September 2013. The conference will bring together central banks and academics to assess the progress made in reducing risks in OTC derivatives markets since the start of the G20 reform programme, and to discuss the road ahead.

In September 2009 the G20 leaders agreed that all standardised over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives contracts should be traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms, where appropriate, and cleared through central counterparties (CCPs) by the end of 2012. The G20 also stated that OTC derivatives contracts should be reported to trade repositories and that non-centrally cleared contracts should be subject to higher capital requirements. The G20 commitments are currently being implemented across jurisdictions, including through the Dodd-Frank Act in the United States and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation in the EU. The conference aims to take stock of the reform process so far, from the perspective of both policy-makers and academics.

Topics

We invite you to submit analytical papers, technical notes and scientific reports on the following four broad themes:

Central clearing and reducing systemic risk

  • The scope of the central clearing mandate: have we set the boundary in the right place?
  • Has the new regulatory environment achieved its objectives in terms of incentives?
  • When is central clearing the optimal solution for reducing systemic risk?
  • How do CCPs respond to a global shock?
  • What are the consequences of the new regulatory landscape for the trading of OTC derivatives?
  • What are the systemic risk consequences of CCPs themselves becoming more systemic?
  • Is there a trade-off between macro-prudential and micro-prudential objectives? How can pro-cyclicality be managed?

Managing counterparty credit risk in OTC derivatives markets

  • What are the risk management models used by CCPs clearing OTC derivatives? Are they sufficiently robust?
  • How do CCPs manage their liquidity and financial risks? Do the CPSS-IOSCO Principles for financial market infrastructures provide sufficient guidance (in terms of ensuring both robustness and a level playing field)? Are there incentives to lower the cost of liquidity management (e.g. through cross-margining)?
  • Bilateral clearing: are the risk management models robust?
  • Capital and collateral requirements: is there a well-balanced trade-off between security and costs for the financial system?
  • How might the different architecture for clearing and settlement affect risk?

Collateral needs stemming from central and bilateral clearing

  • Determinants of collateral: how does the OTC derivatives reform contribute?
  • Is collateral scarce? Potential cross-market effects and how to avoid collateral “traps”.
  • Is there a trade-off between velocity of collateral and financial stability?
  • What are the main market-led changes in collateral management? Do they create new systemic risks?

Transparency

  • Has transparency in OTC derivatives markets increased? And has this been instrumental in reducing systemic risk?
  • Reflections on the transparency/liquidity trade-off.
  • What have we learned from the newly available data (e.g. from trade repositories)?
  • What are the outstanding restrictions and data gaps?

Paper submission

Papers, in the form of at least an extended abstract, should be submitted to derivatives-reform-conference@ecb.europa.eu, 1072-OTC-REFORM-UT@banque-france.fr and to derivatives-reform-conference@bankofengland.co.uk by 20 April 2013. Each presentation will be assigned a discussant.