FINWIRE®

The new opinions for Iceland and India cover companies, banks, securities dealers, insurance companies, mutual funds and hedge funds as well as in the case of the opinion for Iceland the Central Bank of Iceland and in the case of the opinion for India the Reserve Bank of India as parties to the GMRA.

In line with the existing pinions, those of India and Iceland have been obtained from locally appointed law firms and are intended to support the use of the GMRA by addressing the enforceability of the netting provisions and also the validity of the agreement as a whole.

The pinions for Iceland and India will therefore assist banks in fulfilling these regulatory requirements. Commenting on the publication of the new opinions Godfried de Vidts, Chairman of ICMA’s European Repo Council said:

“In the testing trading conditions of past months, the repo markets have not only continued to function without problems, they also provided much needed liquidity lifelines to borrowers short of cash.

“This soundness is due in no small measure to the robust market framework provided by the Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA) with its legal opinions, together with the trading and market practice guidelines and recommendations developed by the European Repo Committee over many years”.

The 59 jurisdictions now covered by the legal opinions include many of the 27 countries of the European Union, as well as rapidly growing financial markets in Asia and the Middle East.