Intraday CCP Margin Spike on a Degraded Platform — severe-but-plausible scenario — ITOL
Vector: Liquidity & Confidence · Severity: extreme
A violent rates move triples variation margin across the cleared book, and the intraday call lands while the margin platform is mid-incident. The bank has an hour to choose: pay late and hand its FCMs (futures commission merchants) their clearing-agreement remedies, or pay a nine-figure number it cannot independently verify.