As a form of due diligence, I have to plough through such an amount of Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt “marketing” articles to have developed a deep dislike for the breed. That said, we thought it instructive to briefly remind readers of the 2021 Regulatory calendar, at least while some time remains to mitigate. Benchmark Reform The ISDA Fallbacks […]

ISDA have today officially launched the IBOR Fallbacks and Supplement and Protocol. The supplement amends ISDA’s standard 2006 definitions for interest rate derivatives, incorporating robust fallbacks for IBOR-linked derivatives. Changes take effect on 25 January 2021, from which date the fallbacks will be included in all new cleared and OTC derivative transactions that reference the […]

ISDA yesterday announced a further delay to the publication of the long-awaited IBOR Fallbacks Protocol. CEO Scott O’Malia used the ISDA derivatiViews blog to inform the market that the effective date of the protocol is now expected to be mid-late January, referencing a letter to this effect sent to the Bank of England and the […]

In May 2019, ISDA launched two consultations: one addressing adjustments to fallback rates if IBORs are permanently discontinued, and another to address the pre-cessation of LIBOR and other IBORs. The operationally imminent cessation of LIBOR can hardly be classified as breaking news. The light shone by the 2008 financial crash fatally exposed the benchmark’s fragility, […]

Overshadowed by the MiFID 2 regulatory colossus, the start of the year also marked the coming into force of the EU’s Benchmark Regulation (BMR). As well as defining and categorising benchmarks, the BMR lays down obligations that affect both administrators and users, requiring firms to prepare written plans detailing their response to the cessation, material […]