OTC derivatives market activity in the second half of 2011

Key developments in the second half of 2011:

• Data at end-December 2011 are not fully comparable with previous periods because of an increase in the reporting population. Australia and Spain reported for the first time, expanding the reporting population to dealers headquartered in 13 countries.
• Notwithstanding the increase in the reporting population, total notional amounts outstanding of OTC derivatives declined between end-June and end-December 2011, to $648 trillion. At the same time, gross market values, which measure the cost of replacing existing contracts, increased to $27 trillion, driven mainly by an increase in the market value of interest rate contracts.
• The rise in gross market values was the largest since the second half of 2008. The increase in gross market values is explained largely by the impact on outstanding interest rate contracts of the decline in long-term euro and US dollar interest rates in the second half of 2011.

Explanatory notes in the release define the coverage of the statistics and the terms used in presenting them. A summary of the latest statistics is presented in the tables in the release. Detailed breakdowns and time series data are available in PDF and CSV files on the BIS Website