Introduction
Driven by the Coronavirus pandemic, extreme volatility on the financial markets in early 2020 led to lenders and financial institution counterparties issuing a significantly increased number of margin calls under facilities governed by English law. Due to the rapid devaluation in the collateral held under such facilities, including margin lending facilities and ISDA-governed transactions, these margin calls typically demanded significant amounts of cash or additional collateral within a very short space of time, in order to cover a lender’s or counterparty’s exposure. As happened in the 2008 financial crisis, this environment has led to disputes crystallising over the validity of these margin calls, collateral valuations, the validity of parties’ acceleration and termination rights for missed margin calls, and the sale of collateral in enforcement actions.