ISDA announced the results of two of its recent surveys, the 2009 Margin Survey (the “Margin Survey”) and the survey of derivatives usage by the world’s 500 largest companies (the “Derivatives Usage Survey”), at its 24th Annual General Meeting in Beijing at the end of April. The Margin Survey results were not surprising in light of the ongoing credit crisis. In particular, the survey reported an increase of almost 86% in the use of collateral in privately-negotiated derivatives transactions over last year’s survey, or approximately $4.0 trillion in collateral currently in circulation. Cash remained the dominant item of collateral being delivered, amounting to 84% of the collateral reported received. The results of the Margin Survey were derived from the responses of 67 firms, 58 of which are banks or broker-dealers.

The Derivatives Usage Survey reported that 94% of the world’s largest companies use derivatives instruments to manage their business and hedge financial and other risks. Foreign exchange derivatives were most widely reported to be used, with 88% of the respondents indicating they made use of them, with interest rate derivatives closely following at 83%. All of the largest companies in Britain (34), France

(39), Japan (64), The Netherlands (13), Canada (14) and Switzerland

(14) reported using derivatives. Of the 153 United States companies surveyed, 92% (140) reported using derivatives. Only 62% (18 of 29) of the surveyed Chinese companies reported using derivatives. Companies in the financial services sector were most likely to use derivatives (98%), closely followed by basic materials companies

(97%) and technology companies (95%). In all, the results demonstrated growth in the use of derivatives by the world’s largest companies from the time of the last survey in 2003.