UNITED KINGDOM: The Final Countdown – Completing Sterling LIBOR Transition by End-2021

Wednesday January 13 2021

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) publishes the final countdown – Completing sterling LIBOR transition by end-2021.

The LIBOR administrator, ICE Benchmark Administration, is consulting on ceasing publication of all sterling LIBOR settings at the end of 2021, leaving just one year for firms to remove their remaining reliance on these benchmarks.

LIBOR has been embedded in the financial system for many years, used to calculate interest in everything from corporate borrowing and intra-group transfers, to complex derivatives. It is also utilised in accounting practices, system infrastructure and other supporting functions. All of these will need to be ready to use alternative reference rates, such as SONIA, by the end of this year.

The Bank of England and the FCA have set out clear expectations for regulated firms to remove their reliance on LIBOR in all new business and in legacy contracts, where feasible. The primary way for market participants to have certainty over the economic terms of their contracts is to actively transition them away from LIBOR.

In support of this, the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates (the Working Group) has published an update to its priorities and roadmap for the final year of transition to help businesses to finish planning the steps they will need to take in the coming months.

The Working Group’s top priority is for markets and their users to be fully prepared for the end of sterling LIBOR by the end of 2021. In particular the Working Group has recommended that, from the end of March 2021, sterling LIBOR is no longer used in any new lending or other cash products that mature after the end of 2021. All businesses with existing loans in sterling should already have heard from their lenders about the transition, and those seeking a new or refinanced loan today should be offered a non-LIBOR alternative. Throughout the remainder of the year, existing contracts linked to sterling LIBOR should be actively transitioned where possible.

In addition, the Working Group has recommended that firms no longer initiate new linear derivatives linked to sterling LIBOR after the end of March 2021, other than for risk management of existing positions or where they mature before the end of 2021.

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