The consequences of increased financial collateralization

November 18, 2017

There has been a strong upward trend in collateralization since the great financial crisis. Suitable collateral, such as government bonds, is essential for financial transactions, particularly repurchase agreements and derivative contracts. Increased collateralization poses new risks. Collateral prices and haircuts are pro-cyclical, which means that collateralized transactions flourish when assets values rise and slump when asset values decline. This creates links between leverage, asset prices, hedging costs and liquidity across many markets. Trends are mutually reinforcing and can escalate into fire sales and market paralysis. Central clearing cannot eliminate this escalation risk. The collateral policies of central banks have become more important.

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Central clearing and systemic risk

January 17, 2016

The expansion of central clearing has created a greater interconnectedness of financial markets and new systemic risks. Large losses of some of clearing members might exhaust central counterparties’ liquid assets and backup lines, triggering unfunded liquidity arrangements and strains on the remaining clearing members. Moreover, collateral requirements of central counterparties could surge in crises.

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The rise and risks of central counterparty clearing

February 8, 2014

A brief speech by ECB governing council member Benoît Cœuré summarizes problematic side effects of increased central counterparty clearing in derivatives markets. Systemic threats may arise from unprecedented risk concentrations in a few global central counterparties and participating banks, as well as from the mutualisation of losses and liquidity shortfalls across systemically important institutions.

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Consequences of the OTC derivatives reform

September 14, 2013

The OTC derivatives reform is nearing completion. It is designed to contain derivatives-related credit and contagion risk through standardization, multilateral netting, and adequate collateralization. However, new risks may arise, due to the enhanced importance of a small group of global banks, institutional weaknesses of central counterparties, limited collateral availability, and cyclicality of margins,

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Macrosynergy is a London based macroeconomic research and technology company whose founders have developed and employed macro quantamental investment strategies in liquid, tradable asset classes, across many markets and for a variety of different factors to generate competitive, uncorrelated investment returns for institutional investors for over eighteen years. Our quantitative-fundamental (quantamental) computing system tracks a broad range of real-time macroeconomic trends in developed and emerging countries, transforming them into macro systematic quantamental investment strategies. In June 2020 Macrosynergy and J.P. Morgan started a collaboration to scale the quantamental system and to popularize tradable economics across financial markets.

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