Dollar Loses Ground in BIS IRD Data, but Still Dominates

There is an interesting juxtaposition in the interest rate derivatives (IRD) data published by the Bank for International Settlements in its latest Triennial Survey of Turnover, with turnover soaring, dollar business shifted largely to exchanges, resulting in a significant decline in the currency’s share of global OTC business – in one instance being overtaken by the euro.

Average daily turnover in OTC IRD in April 2025 was $7.85 trillion, up 58.6% from April 2022, led mainly by a 146% surge in overnight index swaps (IOS) volume to $5.2 trillion. Other swaps volume actually dropped, from $2.24 trillion to $1.87 trillion, while there were decent increases in FRA activity, up 31.3% to $617 billion per day, and options, up 56.8% to $254 billion.

Most notable about the OTC data was the dominance of the euro, which has, for the first time since 2013, overtaken the dollar. In the latest survey 38.5% of OTC IRD turnover was in euros, up from 31.9% in the 2022 survey, while the dollar’s share dropped to 31% from 45.9%. Sterling activity came in next at 12% (up from 6.8% in 2022), yen OTC volume soared to 5.2% of volume from just 1.1% in 2022, while that in AUD dropped to 4.7% from 5.7%, in spite of actual notional volume increasing.

The dollar remains the dominant currency on a global IRD basis, however, largely because of a huge shift to exchange-traded derivatives (ETD), although it also lost ground overall. Interest rate ETD turnover soared by 104% to $17.4 trillion per day, led by dollar-denominated contracts which rose by 83% to just shy of $11.4 trillion and made up 65.4% of the global market. While the volume is significantly higher, the dollar’s share of the ETD market fell from 72.8% in 2022.

In contrast, while euro-denominated contract turnover also rose, its share of ETD was 23.1%, also a rise from 2022, when it was 19.1%. There was a similar picture in Sterling, the share of which grew to 8.4% from 4.8%.

Activity in OTC IRD grew across the board in terms of counterparty, most notably with Other Financial Institutions (OFI), which rose 58.6% to just shy of $6 trillion, although its share of activity, whilst still comfortably the largest, drifted to 76.4% from 77.4% in 2022. Reporting Dealers turnover was $1.66 trillion per day, a 64.9% increase and a rise in market share to 21.1% from 20.4%; while Non-Financial Customers’ activity rose to $183 billion per day from $106 billion.