Thursday, February 27, 2014

"EU Searches for Meaning of Derivative as Rules Take Effect"

One of the great, possibly existential, questions of our time.
Combined with "German Regulators To Identify “Risky Investments” For You" and it's akin to a Hegel, Schopenauer and Wittgenstein hoedown.
From Bloomberg:
What is a derivative? Don’t ask the European Union -- you might get 28 different answers.

The EU’s top markets regulator, the European Securities and Markets Authority, asked the European Commission to clarify what a derivative is as it grapples with harmonizing trade reporting rules across the 28-nation bloc.

“There is no single, commonly adopted definition of derivative or derivative contract in the European Union, thus preventing the convergent application” of the reporting rules within the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, Steven Maijoor, ESMA’s chairman, said in a Feb. 14 letter to Michel Barnier, the commissioner for financial services....MORE
HT Matt Levine who says Everything is a Derivative

Here's the whole gang debating the issue: