Our Approach

The Challenge

The global derivatives markets are in the midst of momentous change. Market participants are bruised and battered after struggling to deal with recent market events. Regulators, politicians and policy groups are continually talking of the need for a proactive approach, enhanced systems, transparency and disclosure. While market participants invest very significant resources in the lengthy process of entering into contracts, involving negotiators, lawyers, tax experts, credit officers and compliance officers, they invest comparatively little in managing these contracts once signed. Many parties have come to regret this, when they have had to deal with a host of events such as bankruptcies, defaults, mergers and acquisitions, ratings downgrades, net asset value declines and collateral calls.

It is only possible to react quickly and appropriately to events such as these if contractual information is readily available and easy to analyze. Technology can provide the solution.

New Approach

To meet today’s challenges, market participants need at least three things.

• First, they need to have all their contractual documents and trading agreements stored electronically in a secure, well-­organized and computer readable format.
• Second, when it comes to critical and complex documents such as ISDA legal agreements, market participants require sophisticated query and analytic capabilities.
• Third, market participants would want to use such unstructured legal data to feed mission critical downstream applications like trade confirmation systems, netting’s filter, collateral managers, risk systems and compliance feeds.