Canada’s securities regulators have approved amendments to National Instrument 94-101, the clearing mandate that governs which over-the-counter derivatives must be routed through a central counterparty.
The package modernizes Appendix A to center the rule on the post-LIBOR benchmark landscape and extends clearing to key credit indexes.
The changes take effect on March 25, 2026, giving dealers, banks, and buy-side firms a long runway to recalibrate trading, documentation, and operations before the new scope applies.
The updated list now anchors interest rate swap clearing around overnight risk-free benchmarks. Canadian dollar CORRA overnight index swaps will be clearable across maturities from seven days out to thirty years.
SOFR overnight index swaps will be clearable from 7 days to 50 years, with Federal Funds OIS listed for tenors out to three years.
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Euro markets shift to €STR overnight index swaps with maturities from seven days to three years, while the U.K.’s SONIA overnight index swaps will be clearable from 7 days to 50 years.
These changes align the Canadian clearing perimeter with liquidity patterns that have consolidated around the risk-free curves, as detailed by the CSA.
The instrument retains clearing for certain benchmark products where activity remains concentrated.
Fixed-to-float and basis swaps referencing EURIBOR stay on the list, as do EURIBOR forward rate agreements, preserving continuity in euro markets where the legacy benchmark continues to be published and widely used.
The rule text sets out currencies, tenor bands, and optionality limits for each product category so firms can map positions precisely to the mandate.
North American investment-grade CDX will be clearable in 5 and 10 year maturities, while North American high-yield CDX will be clearable at 5 years, Europe’s iTraxx Main enters at 5 years.
The rule applies to current and future index rolls by specifying eligible series and clarifies that tranched versions are out of scope.
The shift is meaningful even without headline surprises. Interest rate risk has largely migrated to CORRA, SOFR, €STR, and SONIA markets.
Making those curves the backbone of the clearing mandate should reinforce liquidity at the central counterparties that dominate these products.
In practice, that steers more volume toward global clearers that already process the lion’s share of OIS notional.
On the credit side, mandating clearing for the flagship index families formalizes a pattern that many dealers have adopted voluntarily, while setting a uniform baseline for Canadian participants active in CDX and iTraxx.
