The Foreign Exchange Benchmarks Group (the Group) was established by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to undertake a review of foreign exchange (FX) benchmarks and analyse market practices in relation to their use and the functioning of the FX market as relevant.
The final conclusions and recommendations of the Group will be transmitted by the FSB to the Brisbane G20 leaders’ summit in November.
In the meantime the Group has published an interim report which sets out fifteen draft recommendations following its previous engagement with a wide range of FX market participants across the globe as well as its own independent analysis. The Group is proposing possible recommendations for reform in the FX market in the following broad categories:
- the calculation methodology of the WM/Reuters (WMR) benchmark rates;
- the publication of reference rates by central banks;
- market infrastructure in relation to the execution of fix trades;
- the behaviour of market participants around the time of the major FX benchmarks (primarily the WMR 4pm London fix); and
- recommendations from a forthcoming IOSCO review of the WMR fixes.
The deadline for responding to the interim report is 12 August 2014.
View Foreign Exchange Benchmarks – FSB Consultation Paper, 15 July 2014
View Foreign Exchange Benchmarks Consultative Report, 15 July 2014
