BIS: Macro-economic impact assessment of OTC derivatives regulatory reforms report issued by the MAGD

26 August 2013

The Macro-economic Assessment Group on Derivatives' report assesses and compares the economic benefits and costs of the planned OTC derivatives regulatory reforms.

In this report, the MAGD focuses on the effects of

(i) mandatory central clearing of standardised OTC derivatives,

(ii) margin requirements for non-centrally cleared OTC derivatives and

(iii) bank capital requirements for derivatives-related exposures.

In its preferred scenario, the Group found economic benefits worth 0.16% of GDP per year from avoiding financial crises. It also found economic costs of 0.04% of GDP per year from institutions passing on the expense of holding more capital and collateral to the broader economy. This results in net benefits of 0.12% of GDP per year. These are estimates of the long-run consequences of the reforms, which are expected to apply once they have been fully implemented and had their full economic effects.

Despite statistical uncertainty and the need to make various modelling assumptions and to employ only the limited data available, the group concludes that the economic benefits of reforms are likely to exceed their costs, especially in the scenarios with more netting. Therefore, to maximise the net benefit of the reforms, regulators and market participants must work to make as many OTC derivatives as possible safely centrally clearable, with either a modest number of central counterparties or with central counterparties that interoperate. This should include efforts to harmonise the rules governing cross-border transactions, so that market participants have equal access to CCPs.

Press release

Full report


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