9.23.20
On Wednesday, September 23, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) announced that they would be delaying the effective date of the supplemental and fallbacks protocol until mid to late-January 2021. ISDA CEO Scott O’Malia announced the delay in a blogpost stating that the future implementation date of the protocol hinges on “ ISDA receiving a positive business review letter from the US Department of Justice and then finalizing work with competition authorities in other jurisdictions.” O’Malia stated that once ISDA hears from these authorities, they will make an announcement approximately two weeks before the official start date. During the two week period between the announcement and the implementation, he noted that market participants would be able to participate in the protocol “in escrow,” meaning they would be able to sign up for the program on a binding but non-public basis. Once launched, the supplement and protocol would take place “approximately three months later.”