Transition to RFRs Review: Third Quarter of 2020 and Year-to-September 30, 2020

The Transition to Risk-free Rates (RFRs) Review analyzes the trading volumes of over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange-traded interest rate derivatives (IRD) that reference the selected alternative RFRs, including the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA), the Swiss Average Rate Overnight, the Tokyo Overnight Average Rate, the Euro Short-Term Rate and the Australian Overnight Index Average.

Key highlights for the third quarter of 2020 include:

  • The ISDA-Clarus RFR Adoption Indicator, which tracks how much global trading activity (as measured by DV01) is conducted in cleared OTC and exchange-traded IRD that reference the identified RFRs in six major currencies, was at 7.7% in the third quarter of 2020, compared to 4.5% the prior quarter.
  • Global RFR-linked IRD traded notional accounted for 10.4% of total IRD traded notional in the third quarter of 2020, compared to 5.9% in the prior quarter.
  • Based on US trading data, RFR transactions accounted for 8.5% of IRD traded notional in the third quarter of 2020, compared to 4.5% in the prior quarter.
  • Based on US trading data, IRD traded notional referencing SOFR increased by 8.8% to $228.0 billion in the third quarter of 2020 from $209.6 billion in the prior quarter. IRD traded notional referencing SONIA increased by 56.1% and totaled $3.6 trillion in the third quarter of 2020, compared with $2.3 trillion in the second quarter of 2020.

Documents (1) for Transition to RFRs Review: Third Quarter of 2020 and Year-to-September 30, 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...