South Africa’s two financial regulators, the FSCA and the Prudential Authority, published a joint communication on April 7 establishing eligibility criteria for mandatory central clearing of OTC derivatives. The country’s OTC derivatives market carries approximately R45 trillion in outstanding notional value, roughly $2.5 trillion. The first products affected are South African rand-denominated interest rate swaps and forward rate agreements, with mandatory reporting to Strate set to begin in March 2027, requiring 169 data fields per transaction. South Africa currently has no operational local central counterparty for OTC derivatives, which remains the main hurdle to implementing these reforms, whose two-year timeline is viewed as ambitious by market participants.
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