Industry seeks smaller ‘big bang’ for margin

New study supports sixfold hike in 2020 compliance threshold to avoid “dormant” margin accounts

Higher thresholds would slash the number firms required to negotiate new legal contracts unnecessarily, says study

The initial margin “big bang”, which will see more than 1,000 buy-side counterparties begin to post collateral against their non-cleared derivatives trades from 2020, could be about to get significantly smaller.

Backed by new analysis, industry participants are calling on global regulators to raise the threshold for the fifth and final phase of the regime from $8 billion to at least $50 billion, in an attempt to reduce what they claim is unnecessary work. The analysis is said to show only half