For the past seven months, banks and corporates in the Philippines have been unable to hedge their local interest rate risks, after the cessation of US dollar Libor killed off the previous interest rate swap benchmark, Phiref.

However, the chair of the industry committee guiding the market’s benchmark transition says the group is close to formally endorsing a preferred replacement rate based on repo rates. 

The chosen benchmark is the Variable Reverse Repo Rate (RRP), the weighted average rate of