Asset Management Derivatives Forum Debrief

A Joint Publication from FIA Research and SIFMA Insights

Recently, the Futures Industry Association (FIA) and the SIFMA Asset Management Group (AMG) hosted their annual Asset Management Derivatives Forum. Three themes stood out at this year’s conference:

• Structural modernization is occurring across multiple pillars simultaneously. Treasury clearing, refinements to Federal Reserve liquidity facilities, and tokenization initiatives are not isolated reforms. Together, they reflect a coordinated redesign of the market’s underlying architecture intended to strengthen intermediation capacity and improve collateral mobility.
• Execution will determine whether reform strengthens or strains markets. Cross-margining functionality, appropriate capital calibration, reserve sufficiency, and operational resilience must evolve in tandem. Without alignment across capital, liquidity, and operations, clearing reforms risk amplifying margin-driven funding pressures rather than delivering balance sheet efficiencies.
• Technological innovation demands regulatory adaptation—not exemption. Digital assets, prediction markets, and extended trading frameworks demonstrate how new technology is reshaping markets. Policymakers stressed that regulatory frameworks must adapt to these operating models while preserving investor protection, transparency, and orderly markets—and avoiding fragmentation or regulatory arbitrage.