ISDA has published the fifth in a series of legal guidelines for smart derivatives contracts, intended to support technology developers, lawyers and other key stakeholders in the development of smart derivatives contracts and other technology solutions in the interest rate derivatives (IRD) market. These guidelines:

• Provide high level background on the IRD market;
• Outline ISDA’s strategy for developing and delivering greater standardization and digitization of legal documentation used to trade IRDs;
• Identify opportunities for the potential application of smart contract technology to IRDs; and
• Highlight important issues for technology developers to consider when designing technology-enabled solutions for trading and processing IRDs and associated processes.

While the intention of this paper is not to specify or recommend any particular approach or to address any particular technological application or project, these guidelines do suggest steps that should be taken to ensure the design and implementation of new technology solutions are consistent with existing legal and regulatory standards. These guidelines also highlight areas where further industry collaboration will be required to identify existing areas of legal and regulatory uncertainty and to develop solutions.

Click on the PDF below to read the paper.

You can access all of ISDA’s papers on smart contracts here.