for some products if that is the trend adopted offshore. the risk - free rate in australia before i conclude, i want to make a few comments on australia ’ s risk - free rate, which again is the cash rate. the rba is the administrator of the cash rate benchmark. accordingly, we ’ ve made sure that the procedures underpinning the cash rate are robust. the details of these procedures are available on our website. 6 these ensure that the cash rate will continue to be published, even in circumstances when there are insufficient transactions in the market on a given day to calculate the cash rate based on those transactions. these procedures have been put to the test in recent months, as activity in the cash market has on a number of occasions declined below the relevant thresholds. in most cases, the cash rate has been determined as the last published rate based on sufficient transaction volumes. but the procedures also allow for the cash rate to be determined by the rba in its expert judgement and based on market conditions. so this has ensured that the cash rate continues to reflect the interest rate relevant to unsecured overnight funds. in short, the reserve bank can assure you of the robustness of the cash rate as a benchmark. thank you for your attention. i look forward to your questions. 1 see fsb ( 2020 ), ‘ global transition roadmap for libor ’, 16 october. available at < www. fsb. org / 2020 / 10 / global - transition - roadmap - for - libor / >. 2 see rba, apra and asic ( 2020 ), ‘ regulators release feedback on financial institutions ’ preparation for libor transition ’, media release no. 2020 – 12, 8 april. available at < www. rba. gov. au / media - releases / 2020 / mr20 – 12. html >. 3 see isda ( 2020 ), ‘ sda board statement on the ibor fallbacks supplement and protocol ’, press release, 9 october. 4 see rba, apra and asic ( 2020 ), ‘ regulators urge australian institutions to adhere to the isda ibor fallbacks protocol and supplement ’, media release no. 2020 – 25, 13 october. available at < www. rba. gov. au / mediareleases / 2020 / mr - 20 – 25. html >. the financial stability board also released a statement strongly encouraging widespread and early adherence to the protocol. see

##mark reform. this is why the reserve bank worked with isda as fallback provisions for credit benchmark rates were being developed. we needed to ensure that our local credit - based benchmark, bbsw, was included in the isda fallbacks and protocol. in time, the reserve bank will require securities that reference bbsw to include the relevant isda fallback provisions in order to be eligible as collateral in our market operations. i know that there is a lot of good work already underway in industry towards developing market conventions in this area – including by the asf. in the period ahead, we will be seeking views from market participants on how and when we are going to implement this new eligibility requirement for our market operations. bbsw in the context of global benchmark reform australia ’ s local credit - based benchmark bbsw remains robust. a lot of work has gone into strengthening the methodology underlying its calculation and the supporting infrastructure and market practices. this has allowed australia to pursue a multiple - rate approach for our local reference rates. this means that, unlike for libor, regulators in australia aren ’ t advocating a wholesale transition to referencing the risk - free rate, which in australia ’ s case is the cash rate, also known as aonia. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches instead, we expect market participants to choose robust reference rates that best suit each of their products and situations, taking into account their own and their clients ’ needs or hedging strategies : in some cases, referencing the cash rate will make sense. floating rate notes issued by governments, non - financial corporations and securitisation trusts are possible examples. but in other cases, a credit - based benchmark, like bbsw will continue to make sense. floating rate notes and corporate loans issued by banks are examples of this. but as i ’ ve said before, not all bbsw tenors are as robust as others. 5 in particular, the 1month bbsw is largely a buy - back market. accordingly, it is less liquid than other tenors. so users of 1 - month bbsw should be considering using alternative benchmarks given the lack of liquidity in this market. it ’ s also worth noting that for some products, approaches adopted widely by market participants offshore will have an important bearing on the reference rates we are likely to end up using here. so regardless of the robustness of bbsw, we can expect to see a shift towards referencing risk - free rates in australia