As previously announced and in view of the termination of the remaining US Dollar LIBOR tenors and the disclosure of certain panels on a synthetic basis only from July 1, 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority has published a final notice of its amendments to the Retained Benchmark Regulation (UK BMR) and numerous delegated regulations thereunder (please see the list above). The notice was sent to the ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (IBA), the administrator of the LIBOR, for acknowledgement and came into force immediately thereafter.
Specifically, as the 1-, 3-, and 6-month US Dollar LIBOR were designated as Article 23A benchmarks beginning July 1, 2023, some provisions and rules had to be removed as they no longer apply. For example, the requirements pertaining to contributors of the LIBOR versions for representativeness purposes no longer apply, as there simply aren’t any contributors anymore. Likewise, corresponding requirements of the benchmark administrator no longer apply. Additionally, there are changes in the computation methodology of the benchmark tenors due to them being based on the relevant CME Term SOFR reference rate (Secured Overnight Financing Rate) plus the respective ISDA fixed spread adjustment.
All these changes have now been made with immediate effect.