The transition to a new financial benchmark is gaining traction in the derivatives market, according to new data from the Bank of Canada.
The central bank reported that, for the past two weeks, a greater share of the notional volume in cleared Canadian dollar interest rate derivatives has been priced in the new benchmark — the Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average (CORRA) — instead of the outgoing benchmark, the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR).
The data showed that 54.4% of new cleared notional volume was priced in CORRA last week.
“This marks a significant shift from the start of the year when only about 10% of these derivatives referenced CORRA,” the bank said in a release.
“This move reflects the success of [Canadian Alternative Reference Rate Working Group’s (CARR)] CORRA-first initiatives to transition liquidity to CORRA based derivatives,” the bank added.
Under the transition plan, no new CDOR-based derivative transactions of cash securities will be issued after June 30, and this deadline has been reinforced in guidance from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the central bank noted.
The CDOR benchmark is scheduled to be fully replaced by June 28, 2024.