The Phase-out Of LIBOR And Implementation Of Alternative Reference Rates

We wanted to bring to your attention that Andrew Bailey of the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced last Thursday that he wants LIBOR phased out by the end of 2021 (when the FCA will stop requiring LIBOR rate quotes by the reference banks). This position more closely aligns the FCA with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) here in the U.S., which announced a preference for a broad Treasury repo financing rate back on June 22nd, and possibly accelerated the demise of LIBOR (which has been slowly developing out of the LIBOR rate fixing scandal and the decline in the volume of interbank lending). While it's still too early to amend current transaction documents and the demise of LIBOR is neither immediately imminent nor certain given the fact that the broad Treasury repo financing rate isn't expected to be available for daily quotes until at least early 2018, and it is currently only an overnight rate, we do believe that it is important to keep on