It was the era of bell-bottom jeans, wide ties, and long sideburns—the early 1970s—when the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) became the favored reference rate for establishing interest on commercial and consumer loans, securitized debt, fixed-income instruments, and debt derivatives. Now, as most market participants are well aware, LIBOR is going away for good at the end of 2021. Beset by manipulation scandals that led to hefty fines on big banks, and no longer reflective of any real interbank funding, LIBOR largely fell out of favor over the past decade. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic concluded that a new, more reliable and transparent standard was in order.
To learn more, read our guide for managing this transition by Geneva experts, Jonathan Eldridge and Gage Gorman.
