Australian Banks’ Activities in Derivatives Markets: Products and Risk-Management Practices

In March of this year the Bank circulated a questionnaire on derivatives to all 38 banks operating in the Australian market. The questionnaire sought information on the products being traded by banks, the maturity composition of banks’ derivatives portfolios and banks’ counterparties. Information was also sought on banks’ strategies in derivatives markets, and on their risk-management practices. This article reports some results from that survey, with the main features of the quantitative data presented in the first section; the second section presents some of the qualitative information supplied by banks.