Annual Update on SDR Trading Operations

October 3, 2025

Summary

This paper provides an update on the status of the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) trading market and operations. For more than three decades, SDRs have exclusively been exchanged for freely usable currencies in transactions by agreement, primarily through the Voluntary Trading Arrangements (VTAs). A small fraction of transactions by
agreement—sales or acquisitions of SDRs—has been arranged directly between parties. VTAs are bilateral arrangements between the Fund and SDR department participants or
prescribed holders, in which the VTA participants agree to buy and sell SDRs within certain limits. The paper covers SDR trading operations during the period September 2024 to August 2025.

Subject: Currencies, Financial services, Freely usable currencies, International trade, Money, SDR interest rate, Trading arrangements

Keywords: Currencies, Freely usable currencies, IMF-administered trust, SDR contribution, SDR interest rate, SDR sale, SDR trading activity, SDR trading capacity, Trading arrangements, VTA trading market

Pages:
15
Volume:
2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229027175.007
Issue:
032
Series:
Policy Paper No. 2025/032
Stock No:
PPEA2025032
ISBN:
9798229027175
ISSN:
2663-3493

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