The Bank of England chairs the London Foreign Exchange Joint Standing Committee (FXJSC) Legal Sub-Committee. The FXJSC is made up of market participants, infrastructure providers and the UK financial regulators.
Date of meeting: 17 September 2024
Time: 3pm – 4.30pm | Location: Bank of England, Threadneedle St, London, EC2R 8AH
The Chair (Sharon Blackman) opened the meeting. The Chair noted the apologies and the attendees. The minutes of the meeting of 18 June 2024 were approved. The speakers gave a brief update on two of the Global FX Committee’s key priorities. 1. The 3-year review of the Global FX Code: The 3-year review of the FX Global Code is currently underway. To consider possible changes to the Code the GFXC established two working groups. One to consider FX Settlement and the other to consider FX Data. FX Settlement Risk Working Group update There are three areas of focus. FX Data Working Group update The changes proposed are to: The working group has proposed amendments to Principle 9 and 10: Execution and the Disclosure Cover Sheets. FX Global Code next steps: the updated version of the Code is due to be published by the end of the year. 2. The semi-annual FX Settlement Survey: Matthew Conway gave an overview of the new global approach for collecting FX settlement data. It was noted that the October 2024 FX Settlement Survey round had been launched. A total of seven central banks had adopted the new approach for collecting FX Settlement data for the October round, ahead of the 2025 BIS Triennial Survey which would use the same Survey Template and Reporting Guidelines FX Definitions The speakers briefly explained the history of the FX and Currency Option Definitions (FX Definitions). These FX Definitions are jointly published with ISDA and EMTA and were published 1998, so are due to be reviewed and updated. ISDA developed a plan for updating the FX Definitions, based on responses to an ISDA survey in 2023 of over 50 market participants, to understand how the current definitions can be improved, taking into account recent events and the evolution of FX markets since 1998. Drafting of the updated FX Definitions will take place throughout 2024 and 2025, with publication expected end of November 2025. Market implementation of the updated FX Definitions will be in November 2027. This gives market participants and infrastructure providers 2 years to incorporate the changes into their systems and processes and aligns with Swift’s release schedule. The drafting workstreams are focussed on: An Implementation steering committee has been set up to keep an eye on the drafting to make sure nothing is being proposed that could cause operational problems. Notices Hub The ISDA speakers then gave a Presentation on the proposed Notices Hub. The proposed ISDA Notices Hub is intended to be a robust, secure online platform to provide market participants with a faster, safer and more efficient method for delivering and receiving time-critical notices under ISDA and other Master Agreements. Market participants would be able to maintain control of their contractual position even when more traditional means of delivery prove difficult or impossible. The Notices Hub would include functionality to allow physical address details to be updated in all ISDAs with matched counterparties by single entry, plus periodic verification to reduce incidence of stale address details. The Indicative timeline: The timings and days of future meetings were discussed. Sharon Blackman (Chair) – Citigroup Baljit Saini – NatWest (virtual) David Harris – Financial Conduct Authority (virtual) Joanne Napleton - London Stock Exchange Group Krisha Somaiya – UBS (virtual) Rowland Stacey – Goldman Sachs (Virtual) Simon Goldsworthy – Deutsche Bank (virtual) Sakshi Gupta – Bank of England Matthew Hartley – Bank of England Carly Jones – Bank of England Matthew Conway – Bank of England Natalie Lovell – Bank of England Jonathan Martin - International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Rick Sandilands - International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Gaynor Wood – CLS Harkamal Singh Atwal – HSBC Mayank Patel – Bank of America Nimisha Kanabar - Morgan Stanley Rakesh Shah – Standard Chartered Sunil Samani - XTX Markets Tamsin Rolls – JP Morgan ChaseMinutes
Minute 1: Introduction
Minute 2: Minutes
Minute 3: Global FX Committee (GFXC) Update (Natalie Lovell and Matthew Conway, Bank of England)
Minute 4: ISDA update (Rick Sandilands and Jonathan Martin (International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA))
Minute 5: Any other business
Attendees
FXJSC Legal Sub-Committee Secretariat
Guest attendees
Apologies