ICMA to launch GMRA Clause Library and Taxonomy Project

13 October 2021 ICMA today announces the launch of a four-month initiative with global lawtech and legal data consulting firm, D2 Legal Technology (D2LT), to develop ICMA’s Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA) Clause Taxonomy and Library. This is aimed at standardising and improving efficiencies in the process of negotiating and managing Repurchase (“repo”) transaction documentation.

The primary objective of the ICMA Clause Taxonomy and Library Project is to build an industry-wide, foundational clause taxonomy that - through digitisation - will further support the association’s primary goal of promoting resilient well-functioning international and globally coherent cross-border debt securities markets, essential to fund sustainable economic growth and development.

Once in place, the clause library will help to reduce legal risk by:

introducing industry validated clauses, which will reduce scope for error and problematic or inconsistent drafting;
improving the efficiency of negotiations by allowing lawyers and negotiators to focus on the most substantive and consequential clauses and issues;
allowing for greater visibility in meeting business, regulatory and operational requirements as and when they arise.

Increased standardisation and digitisation will drive more accurate data capture and more efficient repo trade processing, both within firms and across the market. It will also support the development of technology enabled contract delivery solutions which will facilitate more efficient and cost-effective client onboarding. Finally, the adoption of common standards will be a catalyst for the development and adoption of technology by providing clear product and legal specifications for market participants and technology providers to build towards.

Invitation to participate

We are inviting colleagues from legal and documentation functions within ERCC Council firms to participate in the Clause Library & Taxonomy Working Group. This is an opportunity to get involved in the development stages of this important work and to gain an insight into the documentation practices of the market. In order to ensure a meaningful output from the initial phase of this project, we would expect participating firms to provide examples of market variants of specified GMRA clauses and to attend weekly working group calls until the end of Jan 2022. If you are interested in participating or would like to suggest a colleague, please contact Georgia.Cacavelas@icmagroup.org by COB 20th October.