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ARTICLE · 09 FEBRUARY 2021

The transition away from LIBOR: state of play

Corrs Chambers Westgarth
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Current measures underway to aid transition away from LIBOR, recommended milestones & proposed reform.

AustraliaFinance and Banking
Clare Corke
Clare Corke
Julie Myers
Julie Myers
Matthew Butchard
Matthew Butchard
Alex Nakayama
Alex Nakayama
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently reiterated that '2021 is the critical year for firms to complete their transition away from LIBOR'.1

This transition was first announced in 2017, and in 2019 we saw regulators and industry bodies expressing a greater sense of urgency in calling on market participants to avoid delaying preparations. Since then, and notwithstanding any disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been ongoing developments to support the transition away from the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

In this article, we discuss the current state of play and the measures governments and institutions are taking to aid this transition, including the development of overnight risk-free rates (RFRs), recommended transition milestones and proposed legislative reform.

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