Triennial Survey

FX settlement risk, the risk that one party to a currency trade fails to deliver the currency owed, can result in significant losses and undermine financial stability.

This special feature analyses the increased use of short-term foreign exchange hedging instruments in several emerging Asian economies in relation to their outward portfolio investment, which exposes institutional investors and asset managers to US dollar funding disruptions. 

This special feature analyses the increased use of short-term foreign exchange hedging instruments in several emerging Asian economies in relation to their outward portfolio investment, which exposes institutional investors and asset managers to US dollar funding disruptions. 

Over the last decade, the size and structure of the global credit default swap (CDS) market have changed markedly. With the help of the BIS derivatives statistics, we document how outstanding amounts have fallen, central clearing has risen and the composition of underlying credit risk exposures has evolved. Netting of CDS contracts has increased, due to the combination of a higher share of standardised index products and the clearing of such contracts via central counterparties. In turn, this has led to a further reduction in counterparty risk. Underlying credit risks have shifted towards sovereigns and portfolios of reference securities with better credit ratings. The distribution of credit risks across counterparty categories has remained broadly unchanged. ...

By the 1990s, basis risk had caused bond markets, like money markets before them, to start shifting from the use of government rates as benchmarks to the use of private ones. Developments since the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-09, including derivatives reforms and Libor scandals, had the potential to disrupt this shift. Yet BIS data on derivatives turnover indicate that interest rate swaps continue to gain on government bond futures for hedging and positioning at the long end of the yield curve. However, the ease of unwinding positions in futures may stop swap rates from completely ...

For the first time in 15 years, FX trading volumes contracted between two consecutive BIS Triennial Surveys. The decline in trading by leveraged institutions and "fast money" traders, and a reduction in risk appetite, have contributed to a significant drop in spot market activity. More active trading of FX derivatives, largely for hedging purposes, has provided a partial offset. Many FX dealer banks have become ...

We analyse recent developments in over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate derivatives markets using the results of the 2016 BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey. Overall, turnover in both OTC and exchange-traded markets has expanded moderately since 2013. The average daily turnover of US dollar-denominated instruments has nearly doubled, driven by contracts with short maturities. Turnover of euro-denominated instruments has ...

Only 10% of global derivatives turnover is in contracts denominated in the currency of an emerging market economy (EME), much lower than the share of these economies in global GDP or world trade. Derivatives in EME currencies also tend to be less complex and more likely to be traded outside the home economy than those in advanced economy currencies. Differences persist even if we control for key drivers of ...

Global turnover in non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) continues to rise in aggregate. But the paths of NDF markets have diverged across currencies: renminbi internationalisation has led to rapid displacement of NDFs by deliverable forwards, while the NDF market has retained or even gained in importance in other emerging market economy currencies. Policy reforms to reduce systemic risk in derivatives markets are ...

Trading in the FX market reached an all-time high of $5.3 trillion per day in April 2013, a 35% increase relative to 2010. Non-dealer financial institutions, including smaller banks, institutional investors and hedge funds, have grown into the largest and most active counterparty segment.

From June 2011, the BIS credit derivatives statistics provide more granular information on the types of risks transferred through credit default swaps by different groups of counterparties. The new data suggest that reporting dealers have used some hard-to-value credit derivatives to transfer credit risk to shadow banks, possibly exposing these counterparty groups to valuation risks. The data also show that some financial counterparties have sold protection against defaults in the same sector on a net basis.