Derivatives Law Academy

Derivatives Law Academy:

Introduction

We are the world’s first educational organization that focuses exclusively on derivatives contracts. We organize training courses around the world, both public and in-house. Our courses focus on the ISDA Master Agreement and related documentation, in particular Credit Support documentation for collateral. Our European / energy derivatives courses also deal with the EFET and IETA Master Agreements. Depending on the course location, we usually address any local master agreements too.

These courses will provide you with an in-depth understanding of these agreements, the relationship between legal and risk management issues and the practical aspects of negotiation.

Our courses are unique in the sense that they feature a negotiation session module that allows participants to immediately apply the things they have learned.

Course participants typically work at financial institutions, energy and commodity companies, law firms or regulators, in various departments, such as Legal, Documentation Unit, Risk Management, Trading Desk, Collateral Management and Compliance. We usually work with small groups of up to 15 persons as this allows a more interactive environment.

While most course providers only organize courses in English, we also offer them in Spanish and Dutch!

Mark Olie - president DLA and Lead Trainer

Mark Olie is an experienced derivatives lawyer. He has worked for and advised all major Dutch financial institutions (Rabobank, ING Bank and ABN AMRO Bank) and energy companies (Nuon (now Vattenfall) and Essent) on financial and energy derivatives agreements and ancillary documentation. He is a founding board member and president of the Derivatives Law Foundation, based in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, which promotes the knowledge of (especially the legal aspects of) energy and financial derivative products. In 2009 he drafted a suite of derivative contracts, related policies and procedures for the “new” ABN AMRO Bank that was separated from Royal Bank of Scotland and organized and supervised the novation of hundreds of ISDA Master Agreements in view of the legal demerger of the bank. Mark holds a Dutch law degree from Utrecht University and is also an alumnus of New York University School of Law from which he graduated with an LL.M. degree in U.S. corporate law. He is fluent in Dutch, English and Spanish.

Outline of our main course

– Introduction
– Concepts of netting and single agreement
– Definitions/standardisation
– Cross border aspects
– Regulatory aspects
– Legal opinions on netting
– ISDA structure of documentation
– History of the ISDA Master Agreements
– Agreement structure
– Section-by-section explanation

– Comparison between the 1992 and 2002 ISDA Master Agreements

– Products

– Definitions

– 2018 Credit Support Deed for Initial Margin (IM) – English law / 2018 Credit Support Annex for Initial Maring (IM) – New York law

– ISDA Schedule negotiation process basics

– ISDA Master Agreement Negotiation Session

– Simulation of ISDA Master Agreement Schedule negotiations between a financial institution and a multinational company

– Discussion of negotiation outcome and conclusion