On Friday May 05, Hong Kong and China’s central banking authorities announced the launch of Swap Connect, a pioneering initiative that opens up institutional entry to the region’s interbank interest rate swap markets.
Scheduled to go live from May 15, the scheme marks the world’s first derivatives mutual market access programme and builds on plans first announced in July last year by regulators, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority HKMA, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission SFC and the People’s Bank of China PBOC.
The development of the programme follows the success of earlier schemes, Stock Connect and Bond Connect, which launched in 2014...