Derivatives

Separate OTC risk from exchange-traded activity

The world's largest market by face value, measured by the BIS's three free statistical collections. Over-the-counter contracts carried $844.6 trillion of notional principal at end-2025, 11.7x the 1998 figure, yet their gross market value was $22.8 trillion (2.7% of notional) and counterparty exposure after netting just $3.4 trillion. Interest-rate contracts are 79% of OTC notional; credit default swaps, once a $61 trillion market, have shrunk 82%; and the Triennial Survey clocked FX turnover at $9.51 trillion per day in April 2025.

$844.6T

OTC notional outstanding

BIS | semiannual | 2025-S2

$22.8T

OTC gross market value

BIS | semiannual | 2025-S2

$3.4T

Gross credit exposure

BIS | after netting | 2025-S2

$11.0T

CDS notional outstanding

BIS | peak $61.2T in 2007-S2

$129.7T

Exchange-traded IR open interest

BIS | quarterly | 2026-Q1

$9.51T

FX turnover per day

BIS | Triennial Survey | April 2025

Data as of 2025-S2 OTC outstanding, 2026-Q1 exchange-traded, April 2025 Triennial (BIS Data Portal)

Notional is not exposure. The $845 trillion headline is the face value on which contract payments are computed, not money at stake. The BIS's own explanatory notes state it plainly: notional amounts outstanding "provide a measure of market size and a reference from which contractual payments are determined in derivatives markets. However, such amounts are generally not those truly at risk." The amounts at risk are better captured by gross market value, the cost of replacing every open contract at current prices ($22.8T, 2.7% of notional), and by gross credit exposure, which the BIS defines as gross market value minus amounts netted with the same counterparty under legally enforceable bilateral netting agreements, "a measure of exposure to counterparty credit risk (before collateral)": $3.4T. Each measure is charted below.

OTC market composition

Interest-rate contracts dominate OTC notional

The BIS semiannual survey of dealers in 12 reporting jurisdictions, from 1998-S1 to 2025-S2, in USD trillions. Interest-rate contracts (swaps, FRAs, options) dominate throughout: $670T at 2025-S2, 79% of the all-risk total, against $149T of FX contracts. The six categories shown sum to the survey's own all-risk total (asserted at build; FX here excludes gold, which the survey books under commodities).

Interest rate DForeign exchange BCredit TEquity-linked ECommodities JOther U

Hover for each risk category's notional outstanding, USD trillions

Source: BIS, OTC derivatives outstanding (WS_OTC_DERIV2) Semiannual (end-June and end-December positions), all reporting dealers consolidated, adjusted for inter-dealer double counting. Y axis in USD trillions. Methodology

OTC replacement costs

Netting cuts counterparty exposure far below replacement value

Across the full BIS semiannual reporting-dealer series through 2025-S2 in USD trillions. Gross market value peaked at $34.9T in 2008-S2, when crisis-era rate moves pushed replacement costs to their record; at the latest observation it stood at $22.8T. Gross credit exposure, the same positions after legally enforceable bilateral netting (but before collateral), runs far lower: $3.4T, 15% of gross market value. The distance between the two lines is what netting agreements remove from bilateral counterparty risk.

Gross market value DGross credit exposure H

Hover for gross market value and post-netting credit exposure, USD trillions

Source: BIS, OTC derivatives outstanding (WS_OTC_DERIV2) Gross market value: sum of the absolute replacement values of all open contracts at reporting-date prices. Gross credit exposure: gross market value after legally enforceable bilateral netting, before collateral. Methodology

Credit default swaps

CDS notional has collapsed from its pre-crisis peak

Semiannual global CDS notional outstanding in USD trillions. The BIS began collecting positions in 2004-S2. Notional outstanding multiplied nearly tenfold in three years to peak at $61.2T at 2007-S2, on the eve of the global financial crisis; it has since fallen 82% to $11.0T, a shrinkage the BIS's commentaries attribute to post-crisis compression of offsetting positions and the shift to central clearing. Single-name and multi-name (index) contracts are shown separately; index products carry most of what remains.

All CDS USingle-name VMulti-name W

Hover for CDS notional outstanding, USD trillions

Source: BIS, OTC derivatives outstanding (WS_OTC_DERIV2) CDS collection starts 2004-S2; nothing is backfilled. Single-name plus multi-name sum to all CDS. Methodology

Exchange-traded open interest

Interest-rate contracts dwarf FX on organised exchanges

Quarterly global notional open interest on organised exchanges in USD trillions since 1993-Q1. Interest-rate contracts carried $129.7T at 2026-Q1; FX contracts, which mostly trade over the counter, a comparatively tiny $0.55T. A single day's turnover is only a fraction of that open-interest stock: exchange-traded IR and FX contracts turned over a daily average of $27.9T in 2026-03. The BIS exchange-traded set covers FX and interest-rate risk only; equity and commodity exchange contracts are outside it.

Interest rate futures C/TInterest rate options C/HFX futures and options B/A

Hover for quarterly notional open interest, USD trillions

Source: BIS, Exchange-traded derivatives (WS_XTD_DERIV) All exchanges, all currencies. Quarterly notional open interest; the short-term interest-rate segment dominates the total. Methodology

Foreign-exchange instruments

FX swaps lead turnover as the market keeps growing

Global daily-average FX turnover in USD trillions across BIS survey years. Every three years the BIS coordinates the census of dealing: the April 2025 round covered dealers in 52 jurisdictions. Global turnover averaged $9.51T per day (final data; the September 2025 preliminary release headlined $9.6T before revision), up 27% from $7.47T in 2022. FX swaps are the largest instrument at 42% of turnover, ahead of spot. Turnover figures include spot, which is not a derivative; the survey measures the whole FX market.

Total AFX swaps HSpot BOutright forwards EOptions RCurrency swaps I

Hover for each survey's daily-average turnover by instrument, USD trillions

Source: BIS, Triennial Central Bank Survey (WS_DER_OTC_TOV) Daily averages for the April of each survey year, net-net basis (adjusted for local and cross-border inter-dealer double counting). Instruments sum to the total with a small other-products residual (asserted at build). Methodology

Foreign-exchange currencies

The dollar dominates a market whose currency shares total 200%

Global shares of turnover in percent across BIS survey years. Every FX trade has two currency legs, so when turnover is attributed to currencies the shares across all currencies sum to 200%, and a single currency's ceiling is 100%. On that convention the US dollar was on one side of 89.1% of all trades in April 2025 (2022: 88.4%), a dominance no other currency approaches: the euro is next at 28.5%, then the yen at 16.9%. The renminbi's climb to 8.6% still leaves it behind sterling.

US dollar USDEuro EURYen JPYSterling GBPRenminbi CNY

Hover for each currency's share of trades; shares across all currencies sum to 200%

Source: BIS, Triennial Central Bank Survey (WS_DER_OTC_TOV) Net-net basis. The euro enters at its 2001 first survey; renminbi turnover was negligible before the late 2000s. A gap in a line is a survey the currency cut was not published for. Methodology

Where FX trades: the top centers

Turnover by the country of the sales desk, April 2025 against April 2022, net-gross basis (the by-country convention: adjusted for local, not cross-border, inter-dealer double counting, so country turnover does not sum to the global net-net figure above). FX dealing stays extraordinarily concentrated: the United Kingdom alone intermediates 37.8% of global turnover.

Center	Daily turnover 2025, $T	Share 2025	Share 2022
United Kingdom GB	4.74	37.8%	38.0%
United States US	2.33	18.6%	19.5%
Singapore SG	1.49	11.8%	9.5%
Hong Kong SAR HK	0.88	7.0%	7.1%
Japan JP	0.44	3.5%	4.4%
Germany DE	0.39	3.1%	1.9%
Switzerland CH	0.37	3.0%	3.6%
France FR	0.24	1.9%	2.2%

Source: BIS, Triennial Central Bank Survey (WS_DER_OTC_TOV) Shares of the all-countries net-gross total. Sales-desk basis: trades are booked where the deal is struck, not where it is settled. Methodology

Related: interest-rate levels and the term premium behind the rate-derivatives complex, on rates; dealer positioning in exchange-traded futures, on positioning; cross-border banking claims, on cross-border. See the full methodology for datasets, cuts, conventions, verification anchors, and the license note.