The G20's meeting in Brisbane begins tomorrow, and international working groups have been burning the midnight oil to have their progress reports ready in time.  One such group, the OTC Derivatives Regulator Group (ODRG), issued a report on November 7 that provides an update to the G20 Leaders regarding the ODRG’s continuing effort to identify and resolve cross-border issues associated with the implementation of the G20 OTC derivatives reform agenda. The report reflects how the ODRG has addressed, or intends to address, cross-border issues identified since the publication of the report published in advance of the St. Petersburg Summit in September 2013.

The work of the ODRG is far from complete.  Though much progress has been made, work still remains to be done.

On October 17, 2012, the SEC published its long awaited proposals for new rules governing "security-based swaps."  Recognizing the considerable concern over the cross-border effect of this proposed new regime for OTC derivatives, the Commission chose to set those worries aside to be addressed more fully in a forthcoming separate release. They explain that this approach will allow market participants, foreign regulators, and others an opportunity to weigh in on the issues raised by the proposed OTC Derivatives framework as a whole.

In their joint response to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) draft technical standards for the regulation on OTC derivatives, the Dutch Pension Federation, APG, MN, PGGM, Shell and Syntrus Achmea Asset Management, major players in the Dutch pension industry, were highly critical of the proposals, and said they could do more harm than good.  They note that the proposals have a high probability of increasing costs for pension funds and their administrators, costs that will ultimately be borne by pension beneficiaries.  While ESMA has said that the proposals aim to reduce risks via the use of central clearing and risk mitigation techniques and increase confidence with respect to margins, the joint response from the Pension Federation says that they are not convinced that the increase of the confidence level with regard to the margin will automatically lead to more safety.