The ISLA Board has taken the decision to discontinue coverage of the Overseas Securities Lender’s Agreement (October 1994 Version), the Overseas Securities Lender’s Agreement (December 1995 Version), and the Master Gilt Edged Stock Lending Agreement (April 1996 Version), (“legacy agreements”), for the ISLA netting opinions from April 2019 onwards.
The annual netting cycle runs from April to March. For the avoidance of doubt the netting opinions that we are about to publish in April 2018 will cover the legacy agreements. The netting opinions that will be published in April 2019 will no longer cover the legacy agreements. The netting opinions will continue to cover the GMSLA 2000 Version and the GMSLA 2010 Version (“GMSLA 2010”), for the foreseeable future
The issue of no longer covering the legacy agreements has been discussed for a few of years particularly on the netting subscriber calls, however we have held off making the change as participants have continued to use the legacy agreements. The decision has been taken due to the fact the legacy agreements are now over 20 years old and we have continued to urge members to re-paper to the GMSLA 2010. In addition, there is a cost to obtaining opinions on the legacy agreements and funds can be better used to expand coverage of additional jurisdictions and counterpart types for existing opinions.
