SwapsInfo Full Year 2018 and Fourth Quarter of 2018 Review

The ISDA SwapsInfo Review provides analysis of interest rate derivatives (IRD) and credit derivatives trading activity. The report provides a breakdown of cleared, non-cleared, swap execution facility (SEF) and off-SEF traded notional and trade count, as well as product taxonomy and currency information. The summary was published on January 15, 2019.

Key highlights for the full year 2018 include:

  • IRD traded notional rose by 21.9% to $236.4 trillion from $193.9 trillion in the full year 2017. Trade count grew by 13.5% over the same period. Single currency fixed-for-floating interest rate swaps (IRS) traded notional increased by 25.0%, while forward rate agreements (FRAs) and overnight index swaps (OIS) traded notional grew by 20.8% and 12.7%, respectively, in the full year 2018 compared with the full year 2017.
  • Cleared IRD transactions represented 88.1% of total traded notional, compared with 87.6% in the full year 2017. About 96% of fixed-for-floating IRS, 99% of FRA, 97% of OIS, and 31% of other IRD traded notional was cleared in 2018.
  • SEF-traded swaps represented 55.8% of total traded notional, compared with 54.9% in the full year 2017. About 58% of fixed-for-floating IRS, 79% of FRA, 31% of OIS and 37% of other IRD traded notional was executed on SEFs in 2018.
  • Credit derivatives traded notional increased by 39.2% to $9.5 trillion from $6.8 trillion in the full year 2017. Trade count grew by 30.3% over the same period. There was more trading activity across all major indices, including CDX HY, CDX IG and iTraxx Europe. CDX HY traded notional increased by 51%, while CDX IG traded notional rose by 52.2% in the full year 2018 compared with the full year 2017. iTraxx Europe traded notional increased by 27.9% over the same period.
  • Cleared transactions represented 82.8% of total traded notional, compared with 79.8% in the full year 2017. About 98% of CDX HY, 98% of CDX IG, 97% of iTraxx Europe and 49% of other credit derivatives traded notional was cleared.
  • SEF-traded credit derivatives represented 78.8% of total traded notional, compared with 74.9% in the full year 2017. About 97% of CDX HY, 97% of CDX IG, 94% of iTraxx Europe and 40% of other credit derivatives traded notional was executed on SEFs.

Click on the attached PDFs to read the summary and/or full report.

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