Bloomberg Launches Canadian FX Benchmark Rates

Bloomberg announced new Canadian foreign exchange benchmark rates.

Today, the Bank of Canada will adjust the timing, frequency and calculation of the daily average rate for currencies against the Canadian dollar. The Bank said these changes are intended to reinforce the distinction between FX rate fixings used as benchmarks for transactional purposes and Bank of Canada exchange rates that are provided as a public good-for statistical, analytical and informational purposes only.

Bloombergs Canada BFIX is a family of benchmarks used for portfolio benchmarking, derivatives valuation, index construction, and trade execution. The rates can be used by corporate treasury professionals to get an accurate price in currency transactions, and by asset and pension fund managers to demonstrate best execution for investments. BFIX covers spot, forward and non-deliverable forward (NDF) rates. They are based on a Time Weighted Average Price (TWAP) methodology that captures streaming bid/ask data — indicative executable and executed — from multiple FX pricing providers.

Canadian corporates and investors will see the latest market changes next week, said Ben Macdonald, Bloombergs Global Head of Product. Bloomberg is ready, willing and able to provide them with a new, flexible and reliable set of data to help them get currency pricing with even more accuracy and transparency.

The Bloomberg Canada BFIX follows on the heels of its European BFIX counterpart that was introduced before the European Central Bank withdrew from providing FX reference rates as a transactional benchmark in July 2016. The BFIX family of benchmarks was confirmed to be aligned with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Principles for Financial Benchmarks, according to an assessment by an internationally recognized accounting firm, announced in May 2016.

We are gratified that so many European financial firms have adopted BFIX, Macdonald added. Data is available for the Canadian dollar with the following currency pairs: Australian dollar, Brazilian real, Chinese renminbi, European euro, Hong Kong dollar, Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah, Japanese yen, Malaysian ringgit, Mexican peso, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, Peruvian new sol, Russian ruble, Saudi riyal, Singapore dollar, South African rand, South Korean won, Swedish krona, Swiss franc, Taiwanese dollar, Thai baht, Turkish lira, UK pound sterling and US dollar.

Bloomberg customers can see the Canadian BFIX live-streaming, real-time on the Bloomberg Professional service (Terminal) at {BFIX}. These rates and others can be seen at www.bloomberg.com/markets/currencies/fx-fixings. Please note that all this information is provided for reference purposes only. To license the data to conduct valuation or in back-office systems and processes, please contact us at bfixinquiry@bloomberg.net

To learn more about Bloomberg BFIXs Alignment with the IOSCO Principles, please visit https://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/bloomberg-confirms-its-fx-benchmarks-comply-with-iosco-principles/