Collateral Management Guide PART 2: Collateral Management Glossary
Author: Financial-edu.com
Collateral Management Glossary of Key Terms
The following key terms will be useful as you read through this Guide.
- Add-On: An additional currency amount added on to the mark to market value of an underlying trade or security to offset the risk of non-payment. This represents the credit spread above the default-free rate which one counterparty charges the other based on its internal calculations (often negotiated beforehand and memorialized in a CSA).
- Call amount: the currency amount of collateral being requested by the Taker.
- Credit Support Annex (CSA): a legal agreement which sets forth the terms and conditions of the credit arrangements between the counterparties. The trades are normally executed under an ISDA Master Agreement then the credit terms are formalized separately in a CSA (SEE ALSO Collateral Support Document).
- Collateral Support Document (CSD): a legal agreement which sets forth the terms and conditions that collaterization will occur under in a bi-lateral or tri-lateral / multilateral relationship.
- Give: to transfer collateral to a counterparty to meet a collateral or margin demand. The counterparty with negative mark-to-market (a loss) is usually the collateral Giver. (SEE ALSO Pledge).
- Haircut (SEE Valuation Percentage).
- Independent Amount: An additional amount which is paid above the mark-to-market value of the trade or portfolio. The Independent Amount is required to offset the potential future exposure or credit risk between margin call calculation periods. If daily calculations are used, the Independent Amount offsets the overnight credit risk. If weekly calculations are done, the Independent Amount will usually be higher to offset a large amount of potential mark-to-market movement that can occur in a week versus a day. Many counterparties set the Independent Amount at zero then substitute the Minimum Transfer Amount (MTA) as the Independent Amount on a counterparty-by-counterparty basis.
- Margin: Initial margin is the amount of collateral (in currency value) that must be posted up front to enter into a deal on day 1. Variation margin (a.k.a. maintenance margin) is the amount of collateral that must be posted by either party to offset changes in the value of the underlying deal. Initial margin is generally, but not always, higher than variation margin.
- Margin Call: A request typically made by the party with a net positive gain to the party with a net negative gain to post additional collateral to offset credit risk due to changes in deal value.
- Mark to Market (MTM): Currency valuation of a trade, security, or portfolio based on available comparative trade prices in the open market within a stated time frame. MTM does not take into account any price slippage or liquidity effect that might occur from exiting the deal in the open market, but uses the same or similar transaction prices as indicators of value.
- Mark to Model: Currency valuation of a trade or security based on the output of a theoretical pricing model (e.g. Black Scholes).
- Minimum Transfer Amount (MTA): The smallest amount of currency value that is allowable for transfer as collateral. This is a lower threshold beneath which the transfer is more costly than the benefits provided by collaterization. For large banks, the MTA is usually in the USD 100,000 range, but can be lower.
- Netting: the process of aggregating all open trades with a counterparty together to reach a net mark-to-market portfolio value and exposure estimate. Netting facilitates operational efficiency and reduced capital requirements by taking advantage of reduced risk exposures due to correlation effects of portfolio diversification versus valuing all trades independently. However, netting relies upon efficient and accurate pricing at a portfolio level to be effective.
- Pledge: to give collateral to your counterparty. (SEE ALSO Give).
- Potential Future Exposure (PFE): The estimated likelihood of loss due to nonpayment or other risk, in this case the likelihood of default on a counterparty's obligations.
- Rehypothecation: the secondary trading of collateral. Rehypothecation is the cornerstone of tri-party collateral management.
- Substitution: replacing one form of collateral (e.g. corporate bond) with another form of collateral (e.g. Treasury bond) during the life of a particular deal or trading relationship.
- Take: to receive collateral from a counterparty to meet a collateral or margin demand. The counterparty with positive mark-to-market (a gain) is usually the collateral Taker.
- Threshold Amount: the amount of unsecured credit risk that two counterparties are willing to accept before a collateral demand will be made. The counterparties typically agree to a Threshold Amount prior to dealing, but this is a source of ongoing friction between OTC counterparties and their brokers.
- Top-up: To give additional collateral to your counterparty to meet a margin call.
- Valuation Percentage: a percentage applied to the mark-to-market value of collateral which reduces its value for collaterization purposes. Also known as a "haircut", the Valuation Percentage protects the collateral Taker from drops in the collateral's MTM value between margin call periods. For example, if the MTM value of the collateral is $100 and the Valuation Percentage = 98.5% then 1.5% is being charged to offset period-to-period valuation risk and the collateral amount counted is only $98.50. The Valuation Percentage offered by different counterparties and brokers may vary in the market, so buy side participants often "haircut shop" for the best rate.
