It is time to pick up the pace on Libor transition

There are many things to worry about in the capital markets, but the sluggish pace of the transition to new risk-free rates (RFRs) must be pretty high on everyone’s agenda at this stage.

It is certainly high on the agenda of Matthew Lieber, director of capital markets and institutions, markets group, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“Systemic risk is growing with each new contract entered into under Libor,” he declared at the ICMA AGM in Stockholm in May.

At mid-2018, around $400 trillion of financial contracts referenced Libor in one of the major currencies, according to the Bank for International Settlements.