Rashad Cassim: Remarks - Market Practitioners Group Conference

Remarks by Mr Rashad Cassim, Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, at the Market Practitiners Group Conference, Sandton, 19 April 2023. 

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Good morning, all, and welcome to the second Market Practitioners Group (MPG) conference. I joined this industry body just over a year ago, at a time when the MPG had already identified a successor rate to the Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate (Jibar), namely the South African Rand Overnight Index Average (ZARONIA). At the time, the MPG commenced the foundational work to ensure a smooth and effective transition away from the use of Jibar.

Various milestones were reached over the past year, including the development of a mechanism to collect high-quality transaction data to calculate and distribute ZARONIA rates daily; refinement of the transition plan; publication of a white paper on market conventions for ZARONIA-based derivatives; and the inclusion of fallback rates in financial contracts. However, there is a still a great deal of work to do and the eight MPG workstreams are working full steam to take on board the issues that need to be resolved.

The objective of this conference is to bring together all the pieces of work into a coherent strategy, and to give you a clear picture of what the MPG is aiming to achieve and the direction in which we are moving. We hope that at the end of this conference, you have a good grasp of what your organisations will require to successfully adopt ZARONIA and transition away from Jibar.