Interest Rate Benchmarks Review: First Quarter of 2020

In the first quarter of 2020, traded notional of interest rate derivatives (IRD) referencing alternative risk-free rates (RFRs) increased to $8.4 trillion and accounted for 9.6% of total IRD traded notional. In comparison, RFR-linked IRD traded notional equaled $2.7 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2019, comprising 5.4% of total IRD traded notional.

The ISDA Interest Rate Benchmarks Review analyzes the trading volumes of IRD transactions in the US referencing the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and other selected alternative RFRs, including the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA), the Swiss Average Rate Overnight (SARON), the Tokyo Overnight Average Rate (TONA) and the Euro Short-Term Rate (€STR). In addition, the report analyzes IRD traded notional referencing LIBOR denominated in US dollars, sterling, Swiss franc, yen and euro, as well as EURIBOR and TIBOR.

Key highlights for the first quarter of 2020 include:

  • Traded notional of IRD referencing SOFR increased by 68.9% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019 and totaled $280.4 billion, including $135.0 billion of basis swaps.
  • SONIA-linked IRD traded notional rose by 237.4% to $8.0 trillion, including $76.0 billion of basis swaps.
  • Traded notional of IRD referencing SARON decreased by 40.5% to $7.5 billion.
  • TONA-linked IRD traded notional decreased by 5.2% to $111.2 billion.
  • €STR-linked IRD traded notional decreased by 7.1% to $4.4 billion.
  • Traded notional of IRD referencing LIBOR denominated in US dollars, sterling, Swiss franc, yen and euro, as well as EURIBOR and TIBOR, totaled $47.5 trillion and represented 54.3% of total IRD traded notional.
  • $23.7 trillion of IRD traded notional referencing LIBOR had a 2020 maturity, $8.5 trillion had a 2021 maturity and $15.3 trillion had a maturity after 2021, including $9.9 trillion of traded notional based on US dollar LIBOR.

This report uses data from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation swap data repository. It therefore only covers trades that are required to be disclosed under US regulations.

Documents (1) for Interest Rate Benchmarks Review: First Quarter of 2020

Expanding the Universe of Eligible VM

ISDA conducted a series of interviews with buy- and sell-side firms to understand the drivers of a growing use of non-cash assets as variation margin (VM) for non-cleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives and the barriers that remain to expanding the use...

ISDA Response on Hedge Accounting Guidance

On August 14, ISDA responded to an exposure draft from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). ISDA broadly supports the FASB’s proposed targeted improvements to hedge accounting, including allowing interest rate hedging of held-to-maturity (HTM) debt securities, recognizing all Secured...

Joint Response to EBA Consultation

On August 12, ISDA and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) responded to the European Banking Authority’s discussion paper on certain taxonomy key performance indicators (KPIs) and other aspects of the Disclosures Delegated Act  under Article 8 of...

Response to JSCC on Clearing Fund Consolidation

On August 12, ISDA responded to the Japan Securities Clearing Corporation’s (JSCC) consultation on its proposal to consolidate clearing fund consumption, calculation and deposit segmentation across six clearing qualifications under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. ISDA members broadly support...