With the London Interbank Offered Rate — which underpins more than $350 trillion in mortgages, commercial loans, bonds and derivatives worldwide, including $200 trillion in U.S. dollar-denominated financial instruments — not guaranteed to be sustained after 2021, what should banks be doing now to prepare for a transition away from the widely used benchmark?
On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast, Federal Reserve official David Bowman and ABA staff expert Hu Benton discuss:
- Need-to-know background on why Libor has become unsustainable as a benchmark rate
- Why the Alternative Reference Rates Committee selected the Secured Overnight Funding Rate, or SOFR, as its preferred alternative
- What bankers need to know about how SOFR behaves differently from Libor and why they will need time to get used to it
- The urgency of reviewing bank portfolios to ensure contracts contain fallback language should Libor cease permanently
- Supervisory expectations regarding SOFR use and planning for the Libor transition
- How bankers can get involved in the ARRC’s public consultation process on the transition and learn more
If you can’t see the audio player above, click here to listen to this week’s episode.
In this episode:
David Bowman
Senior Adviser
Federal Reserve Board
Hu Benton
VP, Banking Policy
ABA
Evan Sparks
Editor-in-Chief
ABA Banking Journal
