Clearing payments between firms are usually computed under the assumption that firms that cannot fully meet their obligations exhaust their cash resources to make partial payments. In practice, however, firms might wait and see whether they receive payments that would help them to meet their...

We investigate whether margin calls on derivative counterparties could exceed their available liquid assets and, by preventing immediate payment of the calls, spread such liquidity shortfalls through the market. Using trade repository data on derivative portfolios, we simulate variation margin...