The International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) has published the 2018 updates to the ISLA legal netting opinions which support the Global Master Securities Lending Agreement’s (GMSLA’s) and legacy agreements for the securities lending industry. The 2018 opinions cover the use of theses documents in over 60 global jurisdictions This considerable body of legal work is made available to ISLA members who subscribe to the ISLA netting opinions service.
The 2018 opinions cover both the enforceability of the netting provisions of the documents as well as the validity of the documents as a whole (subject to certain limitations). While all 2018 opinions cover, as a minimum, companies, banks and securities dealers many also cover insurance companies, hedge funds and mutual funds as parties to the GMSLA’s and legacy documentation where relevant. A full matrix listing all of the jurisdictions and counterpart types covered is available on ISLA’s website for current subscribers to the 2018 netting opinions.
The GMSLA is the most widely used standard agreement for international securities lending transactions and is the basis for securities lending activity in many markets. The ISLA board recently decided to discontinue coverage of the legacy securities lending documentation, therefore from 2019 coverage will be for the GMSLA onwards.
