The last few months have seen the pace of change accelerate in the business loan market’s transition away from LIBOR. Several alternatives to the replacement benchmark rate recommended by the Alternative Reference Rates...more
On June 4, 2021, the Loan Market Association (LMA) published a recommended form of its reference rate selection agreement (the Selection Agreement), which has been updated following market feedback. The Selection Agreement...more
On May 20, 2021, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a consultation on its proposed policy framework for exercising two of its new powers under the Benchmarks Regulation, as introduced by the UK Financial...more
On May 6, the LSTA published its long-awaited concept Daily SOFR and risk-free rate (RFR)-based multicurrency credit agreements (the Concept RFR Documents). The publication of these documents is a welcomed step in the...more
On March 24, 2021, the New York State legislature passed a Senate Bill (the Bill) regarding the discontinuation of USD LIBOR, which will cease in mid-2023. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Bill into law on...more
On March 30, 2021, the LMA published its exposure draft RFR documentation as recommended forms, and updated the documentation to reflect, among other things, the Sterling Risk-free Rate Working Group’s (the Working Group)...more
On March 25, 2021, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) released supplemental recommendations for its hardwired fallback language for US dollar denominated syndicated and bilateral loans. The ARRC’s supplemental...more
On March 26, 2021, the LMA published a note outlining considerations for market participants relating to the use of forward-looking term SONIA reference rates (Term SONIA Rates)....more
On March 9, 2021, the Federal Reserve in its Supervision and Regulation Letter (the Letter) provided guidance to Federal Reserve examiners and supervised institutions to assist in assessing progress in preparing for the LIBOR...more
March 5, 2021 marks an important day in the LIBOR transition process as the ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA), UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and ISDA made important announcements on the cessation of LIBOR. In recent...more
As the end of Q1 2021 draws closer, the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates (the Working Group) published a Q&A that aims to address the end-Q1 milestone for no new GBP LIBOR lending and a best practice guide...more
On November 20, 2020, the working group on euro risk-free rates (the Euro Working Group) published two consultations on fallback rates to EURIBOR. Market participants were invited to provide their views on the potential...more
On February 15, 2021, the UK Treasury published a consultation paper on potential legal ‘safe harbor’ rules for legacy LIBOR-referencing contracts which have been amended by the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) under the...more
On February 13, 2021, the European Union’s (EU) amendments to the Benchmarks Regulation (2016/1011) (the Amended BMR) came into force, which provides a legislative fix for the cessation of LIBOR in legacy contracts. The...more
On January 28, 2021, the UK Loan Market Association (LMA) published exposure drafts of two multicurrency term and revolving facilities agreements which incorporate, among others, backward-looking compounded risk-free rates...more
ISDA’s IBOR Fallbacks Supplement and Protocol came into effect today. These fallbacks, will be incorporated with immediate effect into all new derivatives contracts which incorporate the 2006 ISDA Definitions, and in all...more
With the end of LIBOR in sight, on January 11, 2021 the Bank of England, FCA and Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates (the Working Group) published a joint statement on the final countdown to the ceasing of...more
With the end of LIBOR drawing closer, the FCA, Bank of England and the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates (the Working Group) are encouraging market participants to actively transition from referencing LIBOR...more
Following years of consultations, ISDA published its long-awaited IBOR Fallbacks Supplement to the 2006 ISDA Definitions (the Supplement) and Protocol on October 23, 2020. The Supplement and Protocol provide a standardized...more
On Monday, November 30, 2020, ICE Benchmark Administration (“IBA”), as administrator of LIBOR, announced that it will consult in early December 2020 on its plan to cease publication of the overnight and one-, three-, six- and...more
On November 23, 2020, the Loan Market Association (the “LMA”) announced the publication of several new and revised documents, with the purpose of helping market participants incorporate appropriate transition mechanisms into...more
Several remarks and releases by public officials and significant regulatory bodies in the first weeks of November garnered significant attention by financial institutions trying to discern next steps in the wind-down of USD...more
On November 18, 2020, the LIBOR administrator ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) announced that they will consult on their intention to cease publication of GBP, EUR, CHF and JPY LIBOR settings across all tenors. Their...more
On October 23, 2020, ISDA published its long-awaited IBOR Fallbacks Supplement to the 2006 ISDA Definitions (the Supplement) and Protocol. The publication is a result of years of consultations with regulators and market...more
On October 21, 2020, the UK Government introduced the Financial Services Bill (the Bill) to Parliament. The Bill is seen as a vital step towards ensuring the UK’s continued status as a global finance hub in the post-Brexit...more