| Interest rate futures to be introduced shortly | |
| Press Trust of India / Mumbai December 5, 2008, 20:49 IST | |
 After the successful launch of currency futures, interest rates futures are likely to be introduced soon, a top government official said.
"It is matter of time, we will have interest rates futures," Sebi Executive Director, R K Nair, told reporters here today while inaugrating the MCX-SX (MCX Stock Exchange) website in Hindi and Gujarati for currency derivatives.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) have jointly set up a technical committee to look into the issue of interest rates futures," Nair said.
The meetings of the technical committee for the same is going on, he said.
Interest rate futures are contracts that have interest-bearing instruments like treasury bills as underlying assets.
According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) an international organisation of central banks the size of interest rate contracts globally is pegged at more than $45 trillion.
Market participants feel that the interest rate futures market would actually help the spot market as the introduction of such contracts lead to better discovery of interest rates, not only for market players but also for other corporates that have interest-rate risks.
Nair said that the launch of currency futures is expected to provide more opportuntity for investors.
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