The treatment of securities financing transactions(SFTs) allows cash payables and cash receivables that arises from SFTs with the same counterparty to be netted provided that certain conditions are met; one of these conditions being transactions that gives rise to the receivables and payables have the same explicit final settlement date.

Clarification has been sought since the Basel III leverage ratio framework on the treatment of open repos (i.e. repos with no explicit end date but which can be unwound at any time by either party to the transaction). The response concluded was open repos are not eligible for netting as they do not meet the mentioned condition of featuring an explicit settlement date.

However, it was mentioned in the FAQ in July 15 that the Committee is aware that there are countries where the use of open repos is widespread and that the current treatment may therefore have a material impact on banks operating in those countries despite open repos serving a functional equivalent to overnight repos used in other countries.

We noted that for Canada Leverage OSFI has amended its treatment of open maturity SFT exposure in the LR guideline to reflect the economic similarity between the open maturity and overnight SFTs. Institutions will be allowed to consider open maturity secured transactions as overnight trades for the purpose of measuring cash payables and cash receivables in SFTs with the same counterparty on a net basis.

As a result, the LR exposure measure of open repos may significantly differ between jurisdictions.