A motorcycle passes a building of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in Manila, Philippines, on Apr 28, 2016. MANILA: The Philippine central bank announced the launch on Monday of an interest rate swaps market anchored to a newly established benchmark rate to enhance bond market trading and liquidity.
IRS, a fixture of developed fixed-income markets, lets parties manage rate risk or bet on the direction of borrowing costs by exchanging fixed and floating interest rate streams. "We are excited for PESO IRS to go live to help boost transactions, create a benchmark yield curve, and deepen our capital markets," central bank Governor Eli Remolona said in a statement."A benchmark curve will help banks and other lenders price loans at various maturities."