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.

Should we be alarmed about empty voting? According to a recent article, "A Call to Arms on Empty Voting!" by Andrew MacDougall, Robert M. Yalden and Jeremy Fraiberg, yes, we should indeed.  Using a proxy battle over a proposal by Canadian company, TELUS to eliminate its dual class share structure earlier this year  as an example, MacGougall, Yalden, and Fraiberg assert that as "the number of public M&A transactions increases, and if U.S. hedge funds continue to look for opportunities in Canada to engage in strategic gamesmanship, concerns about empty voting will also increase."

Just in time for the CFTC and SEC's final swaps provisions,  State Street and TABB Group have published a paper, "Charting New Territory: Buy-Side Readiness for Swaps Reforms," based on a survey of buy-side firms examining where the investment community stands on a range of issues arising from global swaps reforms.  The paper also looks at the challenges the industry faces as it transforms from an opaque, over-the-counter, bilaterally traded environment to electronic execution and central clearing.