The Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Rates (RFRWG), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England published joint statements on the 25th March [Impact of the coronavirus on firms’ LIBOR transition plans] and 29th April [Further statement from the RFRWG on the impact of Coronavirus on the timeline for firms’ LIBOR transition plans] relating to LIBOR transition. These statements underline the need for firms to continue to migrate away from LIBOR as a reference in their financial contracts and reiterate that firms cannot rely on the benchmark’s continued publication as the current voluntary agreement between the FCA and LIBOR panel banks will expire after end-2021 (as announced in 2017 [The future of LIBOR]). The Government has followed these and related global regulatory developments closely, including the Tough Legacy Taskforce report published by the RFRWG.
The Government shares both the regulators’ pragmatism in recognising the interim timetable for transi
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