Canadian Alternative Reference Rate Working Group

The Canadian Alternative Reference Rate Working Group (CARR) was created to ensure Canada’s interest rate benchmark regime is robust, relevant and effective in the years ahead. Find more information about our background, market notices, meetings, and membership.

Background

Interest rate benchmarks are a cornerstone of the global financial system and are used by market participants across a wide range of financial products and contracts. In 2013, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) established the Official Sector Steering Group (OSSG) to advise the FSB on recommendations to strengthen existing interbank offered rate benchmarks. This global work is now at a key inflection point with the confirmation that LIBOR, a key global interest rate benchmark, will cease being published at end-2021 (and end-June 2023 for key USD LIBOR tenors). As LIBOR’s cessation nears, global liquidity is expected to shift to products referencing risk-free rates, even in countries like Canada where LIBOR is not a predominant rate.

To coordinate Canadian interest rate reform, Canada established the Canadian Alternative Reference Rate Working Group—sponsored by the Canadian Fixed-Income Forum.

CARR’s primary objectives will be to:

  1. support and encourage the adoption of, and transition to, the Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average (CORRA) as a key financial benchmark for Canadian derivatives and securities; and
  2. analyze the current status of the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR) and its efficacy as a benchmark, as well as make recommendations on the basis of that analysis.

CARR also oversees the CORRA Advisory Group.

Key documents

Access our key documents and other reference material including recommended conventions, fallbacks, webcasts, speeches, and overviews.

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News

June 10, 2024

CARR provides guidance for CDOR-based loans, derivatives and securities that do not have a robust fallback in place for CDOR’s cessation post June 28, 2024

The Canadian Alternative Reference Rate working group (CARR) is providing guidance to market participants with respect to CDOR-linked loans, derivatives and securities that do not have adequate fallback language to address the cessation of CDOR following the final publication by Refinitiv Benchmark Services (UK) Limited on June 28, 2024 (the “Cessation Date”).

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Membership

Co-chairs

Harri Vikstedt

Senior Policy Director, Market Committees and Initiatives
Financial Markets
Bank of Canada


Karl Wildi

Managing Director and Vice-Chair, Global Markets
CIBC Capital Markets


Market representatives

Jason Chang
Alberta Investment Management Corporation

Jean-Philippe Drolet
National Bank of Canada

Elaine Wright
Alcoa Corporation

Edwin Wong
Ontario Financing Authority

Alexander Nicholson
Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Audrey Gaspar
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

Carol McDonald
Bank of Montreal

Andrew Bastien
PSP Investments

Luke Francis
Brookfield

Guillaume Pichard
Quebec Ministry of Finance

Louise Stevens
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Bruce Wagner
Rogers Communications

Karl Wildi
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Jim Byrd
Royal Bank of Canada

Brent Clode
Central1

Anuj Dhawan
Scotiabank

Yassir Berbiche
Desjardins

Brett Pacific
Sun Life Financial

Derek Astley
TD Bank

Observers

Ann Battle
ISDA

Robert Catani
Montréal Exchange

Philip Whitehurst
LCH

Andrew Munn
CanDeal

Joshua Chad
McMillan LLP

Contact

Receive notification by email whenever new CARR material is added to the website.

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