There's been a flurry of regulatory activity in the UK and Europe over the past few weeks. Here's a look at the highlights. The EU has renewed its determination that the solvency regime for US-headquartered insurers and...more
Although July 3 was the first business day on which no USD LIBOR was published, many financial instruments will not reset until the next reset date, based upon the tenor of each instruments’ underlying benchmark, which could...more
Back in March of 2021, we covered a number of developments pertaining to the end of LIBOR that came out of certain announcements made early that month by the Intercontinental Exchange Benchmark Administration (the “IBA”),...more
As market participants prepare to submit comments on the recent proposal of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) (available here) to require the temporary publication of a “synthetic” 1-, 3- and 6-month USD LIBOR,...more
This latest edition of the regulatory initiatives paper sets out at a high level the core regulatory issues that are likely to impact private fund managers in the coming months, including an overview of the key actions needed...more
On March 5, 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced the future cessation or loss of representativeness of the 35 LIBOR benchmark settings currently published by ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA), the authorized...more
On March 15, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 – which included the Adjustable Interest Rate (LIBOR) Act – was signed into law. The LIBOR Act is meant to address concerns with ceasing the use of LIBOR by...more
On March 15, President Biden signed, as part of a larger appropriations act, legislation known as the “Adjustable Interest Rate (LIBOR) Act,” which addresses “tough legacy” contracts that do not provide for the use of clearly...more
In March 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the ICE Benchmark Administration, the administrator of LIBOR, announced that sterling, euro, Swiss franc and Japanese yen LIBOR panels, as well as panels for one-week...more
While Dec. 31, 2021 was a key LIBOR transition deadline for many lenders, the transition has continued in 2022 with alternative lenders in particular continuing to use the LIBOR tenors that will remain available until June...more
The London Interbank Offered Rate's (Libor) regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, and administrator, Intercontinental Exchange Benchmark Administration (ICE), on March 5, 2021, announced that the publication of the...more
The Internal Revenue Service and the US Treasury Department have issued final regulations providing rules for taxpayers transitioning from interbank offered rates to qualified rates. These regulations provide financial...more
In our October 2019 alert, we advised that LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) will not be available for use as an interest rate index after December 31, 2021 (the LIBOR Cessation). As the end of 2021 approaches, here is...more
This past Monday, July 26, marked passage of the most recent major milestone in the replacement of LIBOR as the benchmark USD interest rate. Following the recommendation of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC)...more
On July 26, 2021, Neal R. Pandozzi participated as a presenter in the Strafford CLE webinar "The Phase-out of LIBOR: Navigating the Final Stages, Implementing Alternative Reference Rates and Fallback Language." The webinar...more
This article aims to highlight certain key differences between LIBOR, SOFR and several of the most common credit sensitive rates that are available or are in development today. ...more
While the end of widespread use of the U.S. Dollar London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”)1 has been looming for several years, there have been a number of key developments recently in the transition away from LIBOR that...more
On April 6, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law Senate Bill S297B/Assembly Bill 164B (the “New York Legislation”), which paves the way for a smoother transition from US Dollar LIBOR and, in particular,...more
Ready or not, borrowers are involuntarily seeing changes in the interest rates they are being charged. Why, you ask? Because there are serious, systemic risks associated with the most widely used interest rate basis in the...more
The State of New York has enacted a new law that should ease the transition away from US dollar LIBOR for legacy financial contracts that are governed by New York law but do not contain modern benchmark fallback provisions. ...more
March was a big month for the LIBOR endgame. There were several big announcements, some important (but technical) developments, and new deadlines. Simply put, the March developments matter to the fund finance community...more
The end of March has welcomed Spring, and this year it marks a new era for the financial markets, particularly for loans and financial products which would usually use Sterling LIBOR as the benchmark for calculation of...more
On March 25, 2021, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (the “ARRC”) issued supplemental guidance to its recommended hardwired fallback language for U.S. dollar LIBOR denominated syndicated and bilateral business loans....more
On 5 March 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") announced (the "FCA Announcement") the future cessation or loss of representativeness for all 35 LIBOR settings currently published by ICE Benchmark Administration...more
Recent statements by LIBOR authorities in the UK have implications for benchmark fallbacks in US documents. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") and ICE Benchmark Administration ("IBA") released statements1 on...more