CFTC Announces Weekly Swaps Report

To encourage a landscape of transparency, the CFTC has announced the initiation of the CFTC Weekly Swaps Report, Chairman Gary Gensler announced Wednesday. The weekly report will provide the public with a detailed view of trading activity in the swaps marketplace.

The CFTC says the Weekly Swaps Report is modeled on the CFTC’s Commitments of Traders report, which offers a weekly snapshot of open interest for markets in which 20 or more traders hold significant positions. The report will be published each Wednesday at 3:30 PM. Data for the week ending on a given Friday will appear in the report on the second following Wednesday (i.e. 12 days later). For example, data for the week ending November 8 appears in the report published November 20. The report provides three views of the swaps market: the gross notional outstanding value, the weekly transactions measured by dollar volume, and the weekly transactions measured by ticket volume.

The inaugural report released on Wednesday shows that, over the last month, approximately 70 percent of new transactions in the interest rate swaps market were cleared. As of November 8th, the outstanding notional amount of market facing interest rate swaps totaled $320 trillion, and 61% of those swaps were cleared. Comparatively, just 21% of the interest rate swaps market was cleared in 2008. The report currently covers the interest rate and credit asset classes that comprise about 90% of the approximately $400 trillion swaps market.

To access the Weekly Swaps Report, visit http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/SwapsReports.