Subject to a maximum of five years, the effective maturity of the underlying shall be the longest possible remaining time before the obligor is scheduled to fulfil its obligations. Subject to paragraph 2, the maturity of the credit protection shall be the time to the earliest date at which the protection may terminate or be terminated.

Where there is an option to terminate the protection which is at the discretion of the protection seller, institutions shall take the maturity of the protection to be the time to the earliest date at which that option may be exercised. Where there is an option to terminate the protection which is at the discretion of the protection buyer and the terms of the arrangement at origination of the protection contain a positive incentive for the institution to call the transaction before contractual maturity, an institution shall take the maturity of the protection to be the time to the earliest date at which that option may be exercised; otherwise the institution may consider that such an option does not affect the maturity of the protection.

Where a credit derivative is not prevented from terminating prior to expiration of any grace period required for a default on the underlying obligation to occur as a result of a failure to pay institutions shall reduce the maturity of the protection by the length of the grace period.