2026 is off with a sprint and we are in the full doldrums of back-to-the-grind January. The holiday season seems like a distant memory as we are already experiencing busy markets and geo-political turmoil. And yes, I am doing a dry January, which makes me crankier than normal. You must be thinking, “What a downer viewpoint!” But I’m here to turn that frown upside down.
First, let’s bask in our successes last year. It was a year in which FIA members leaned in, worked together and delivered meaningful progress for global derivatives markets. We should take pride in how often our work translated into real-world outcomes.
DMIST stands out as one of the clearest examples that bore fruit. The standards body that we established in 2022 approved its fourth industry standard regarding position transfers, continuing a multi-year effort to improve efficiency in post-trade workflows. These efforts led to a 50 percent reduction in backlogs during peak volume days in 2025. Feeling better?
Education also took a major step forward last year. FIA reinvented its educational affiliate with FIA Markets Academy™ and launched an online curriculum designed to meet the evolving needs of our industry. In November, we awarded our first class of individuals with the Markets Academy Give-Up Certificate, and we plan to add an operations specialist certificate program in 2026. You should be proud that we are training the next generation about the mechanics of our industry.
With your help, we focused our strategic attention on advancing technology in 2025. FIA framed the debate with its white paper on the tokenization of collateral – an emerging development with real implications for liquidity, settlement and risk management. That work positioned FIA at the center of the conversation as tokenization moves from theoretical to mainstream.
FIA achieved another milestone with its launch of a new client clearing model for Europe with the unveiling of the European Agent Trustee Model in December. This breakthrough came after five years of development involving FIA, a consortium of bank clearing members, two European clearinghouses and external counsel.
The model enables clearing member banks to offer a US-style agency client clearing model in Europe and importantly, unlocks meaningful capital efficiencies and clearing capacity for our industry.
FIA also delivered significant advocacy wins across markets in 2025. In the US, after years of engagement, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted critical Part 30 relief for foreign clearinghouses, freeing up approximately $22 billion in duplicative collateral without harming the safety of the clearing system.
In Europe, FIA made progress on EMIR 3.0 implementation, including a one-year delay to Article 7d reporting requirements. Our advocacy on margin transparency gained traction globally, with the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the European Securities and Markets Authority advancing proposals that reflected many of FIA’s recommendations.
In the UK, our advocacy delivered a clear win under the Wholesale Markets Review with the FCA adopting the industry’s recommendation to not include exchange-traded derivatives in the Ancillary Activities Test.
In Asia, FIA advanced key priorities with regulators, pressing for greater legal certainty on close-out netting in China and securing a major win in Hong Kong with the implementation of higher position limits for Hang Seng Index derivatives.
These outcomes set the stage for further advocacy progress in 2026, including capital relief under the US Basel III endgame rules and revisions to the Basel Committee’s framework on crypto-asset exposures.
As we start 2026, don’t let the January blues bring you down. I remain convinced that this is the most exciting time to be in the derivatives industry. Change can bring uncertainty, but it also drives growth as we are witnessing with crypto, stablecoins, event contracts and traditional markets alike.
If 2025 demonstrated anything, it is that when this industry works together, we can deliver outcomes that strengthen our markets and drive innovation. Even during dry January, that is worth celebrating!
