ASX Rates Highlights Q3 – July to September 2025
OTC, Futures, Benchmarks and Collateral insights Q3 2025
ASX provide key trading observations during the period July to September 2025 and the latest interest rate derivative market updates. View the key updates and the full chart pack below.
Trading volumes in Q3 2025 continued to be strong as a result of macroeconomic volatility. After a surprise decision to leave rates on hold during July, the RBA cut interest rates again in August 2025 to 3.6% as widely anticipated by the market.
The September 2025 Bond Roll was the third Roll Period where the Bond Futures (3, 5, 10, and 20 year) contracts outright market was delinked from the roll calendar spread. Significant improvements to top of book liquidity and depth were again recorded in the outright market during the period.
Outright market top of book liquidity improvements throughout the roll period:
The improved liquidity and tradability of the outright market during the roll period contributed to substantial improvements in market activity during the roll period.
During Q3 2025, average daily eligible volumes in prime bank NCDs rose to 2.43 billion up from 2.12 billion in the prior quarter. This contributed to an improvement in transaction-based tenor formation which rose to an average of 3.4 tenors.
SOFIA Overnight Repo Reference rate
ASX has commenced the implementation of live SOFIA Overnight Repo Reference rate with the VWAP-based calculation methodologies following the SOFIA Working Group decision in May 2025. Further detail and additional data can be found on ASX Benchmarks.
| Product | Contracts taken to cash settlement (Sep'25) |
| 90 Day (IR) | 209,747 |
| 3 Year (YT) | 81,431 |
| 5 Year (VT) | 1,450 |
| 10 Year (XT) | 55,546 |
| 20 Year (LT) | 100 |
| NZ 90-Day (BB) | 59,774 |
ASX OTC Clearing volumes for Q3 2025 were A$2.07 trillion notional value. Open Interest as at the end of September 2025, was A$4.940 trillion, up 6% on September 2024.
During the quarter, banks and clients appeared to take advantage of the lower total cost of clearing available at ASX with an average 50% reduction in Initial Margin requirements, achieved by customers through usage of ASX's fully automated cross-product margin optimisation service. Learn more
ASX Collateral maintained an average balance of $29 billion in Q3 2025. While RBAs OMO activity declined from $23.5 billion in Q2 to $21.3 billion in Q3, usage of the ASX Collateral triparty platform for OMO remained steady at $11.5 billion over the same period. Notably, over one-third of the collateral on the triparty platform comprises non-government and non-semi-government securities, reflecting a diversification in collateral types. Furthermore, the majority of individual collateral lines are valued below $5 million, underscoring a growing utilisation of previously underused securities.
The full chart pack includes ASX Interest Rate Derivatives volume by session, roll volume, volume vs open interest, calendar year overview, OTC activity, ASX Collateral balances and Austraclear's outstanding bond amounts.
On Friday, 18 July, ASX re-established the minimum price increment 'tick' value to 0.5 bp (0.005%). Since then we've seen the top of book liquidity growth to back above 1,500 lots a side during the day session and 1,000 lots a side in the night session. Also, orderbook volume at 1bp is now higher on average than for the period between 1 January and 21 July 2025. See the charts
ASX recently launched Austraclear® Debt Market Activity – a powerful new addition to ASX’s suite of debt market reference data offerings.
This new service provides enhanced transparency into Bond, Repo and Money Market settlement flows and trading dynamics across Australia’s debt markets, offering valuable insights for issuers, investors and intermediaries. Find out more
Email: Rates@asx.com.au
www.asx.com.au/bond-derivatives
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International: telephone +61 2 9338 0000
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