OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2010. ING Commercial Banking in Russia reports about the first ever RUB overnight index swap (OIS) transaction entered into by a local Russian institution.  It was executed with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and references the recently established RUONIA index, reported the press-centre of ING.
 
 “ING Commercial Banking in Russia is proud to introduce this OIS product to the local market. One of the product's most important features is to provide hedging or speculative opportunities against a highly representative reference rate derived from the interbank money markets. This is early days yet, but RUONIA and RUONIA OIS also have the potential, in time, to become the Ruble interest rate curve of choice for the market. This initiative is fully supported by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and regarded as an effective tool to use in the financial market”, said Graeme Smith, Head of Liquidity Management, ING Commercial Banking in Russia.
 
“The EBRD’s pioneering transactions in this market were one-week swaps tied to Ruonia but they mark an important step forward in developing and deepening Russian capital markets as we hope the OIS will serve as the platform for the emergence of longer-dated instruments. Yesterday, we traded a one-month Ruonia OIS with ING, so the curve is already extending”, said the EBRD’s Treasurer Axel van Nederveen.
 
The aforementioned deal was executed on October 13 th and had one week tenor. On November 11th the first ever one month RUB OIS transaction was executed, also between ING Commercial Banking in Russia and EBRD.