The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) bolstered its senior staff with new additions and roles in order to respond to the mounting cross-border issues facing the market.
Among the appointments, Steven Kennedy has been named as global head of public policy, overseeing ISDA’s public policy teams in Brussels, Hong Kong, London, New York, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington.
Kennedy joined the association in 2011 after founding and operating at financial communications consultancy Kennedy & Company in the 17 years prior.
To further expand its technical capabilities, ISDA has also established a new Regulatory and Legal Practice Group within the Office of the General Counsel, to be led by Bella Rozenberg, who joins ISDA from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
At the US regulator, Rozenberg worked in the Office of the General Counsel and Division of Market Oversight.
In her newly created role, Rozenberg will “drive policy coordination from a legal perspective and provide advice to ISDA’s policy teams globally”, said ISDA in a statement.
Regulators in the US, Europe and Japan are close to finalising non-cleared margin rules and ISDA said its implementation working groups will continue to work on the development of an industry standard initial margin model.
“With the development of new regulation largely complete, it’s vital that the various national rules converge and regulators in one jurisdiction are willing and able to recognise and defer to equivalent regulations in another,” said ISDA chief executive officer, Scott O’Malia.
“The organisational changes will enable ISDA’s to effectively respond to cross-border issues – for instance, by leveraging our global footprint to help provide data and analysis to regulators.”