Linklaters/Nakhoda

ISDA Create

I helped Linklaters digital innovation team Nakhoda to develop the ISDA Create platform. A tool to help reduce the complexity and time required to complete Initial Margin negotiations.

ISDA Create allows organizations to generate, negotiate and execute documentation completely online, as well as capture, process and store data from these documents. Originally launched to help firms negotiate initial margin documentation to comply with new margin rules, the platform has been extended to other documents, including the flagship ISDA Master Agreement and non-derivatives documents, such as repo/secured lending documentation.

Initial margin negotiations are known for their time consuming nature and complexity. Linklaters aim was to reduce the time required to complete these negotations and to break away from their traditional offline processes.

Designing a digital product within an industry with strongly entrenched ways of working presented an initial challenge to both understand the domain specific knowledge, and convince the key stakeholders to be open to new digital solutions.ISDA Create was launched in 2019 and is currently being used by more than 60 financial institutions for the automation of regulatory Initial Margin (IM) negotiations. A further 300+ institutions, including 8 of the world’s 10 largest banks by assets are in the testing phase.