Herbert Smith Freehills LLP has published an article in Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law on amending legacy loan agreements to replace LIBOR with near risk-free rates. Following the Financial Conduct Authority’s announcement on 5 March 2021 that all LIBOR settings will either cease to be provided by an administrator or no longer be representative … Read more

The Critical Benchmarks (References and Administrators’ Liability) Bill (Bill) was today introduced to the UK Parliament and the first reading took place. The Bill introduces a legal “safe harbour” within the primary legislative framework for the UK’s LIBOR legislative solution, the Financial Services Act 2021 (FSA 2021). It follows a consultation paper published by HMT … Read more

The FCA has published an important consultation in respect of its enhanced powers under the UK’s legislative solution for the transition of so-called “tough legacy” LIBOR contracts, including the all-important question as to which legacy LIBOR contracts will be within the scope of the legislative fix: Benchmarks Regulation: how we propose to use our powers … Read more

The New York (NY) State Legislature has passed a statutory solution to tackle so-called “tough legacy” LIBOR contracts, to reduce the risks associated with the transition away from USD LIBOR: Senate Bill 297B/Assembly Bill 164B. This is very welcome news given the widespread use of NY law in financial contracts. In this blog post, we … Read more

At the end of 2020, we identified the following key issues to have in mind as we entered the LIBOR “endgame”: Readiness, meeting the milestones set by relevant industry groups Right time, the need to communicate with customers in a timely way Right information, communicating in a way that’s clear, fair and not misleading Right … Read more

The FCA today made its much anticipated announcement that all LIBOR settings will either cease to be provided by any administrator or will no longer be representative: immediately after 31 December 2021, in the case of all sterling, euro, Swiss franc and Japanese yen settings, and the 1-week and 2-month US dollar settings; and immediately … Read more

In the context of the UK’s legislative solution for the transition of so-called “tough legacy” LIBOR contracts, contained within the Financial Services Bill (FS Bill), HM Treasury (HMT) has recently published a consultation paper: Supporting the wind-down of critical benchmarks. The consultation considers the case for incorporating a legal “safe harbour” in the legislation, to … Read more

On 2 February 2021, the European Council paved the way for the EU’s legislative solution for the transition of legacy LIBOR contracts to become law, by adopting amendments to the Benchmark Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 (BMR), which will now enter into force and apply from 13 February 2021. The final version of the EU’s legislative fix … Read more