LIBOR, which stands for ‘London Interbank Offered Rate’ is a benchmark interest rate that is currently used across a wide range of financial contracts both on and off balance sheet. Currently contracts in excess $370 trillion are reliant on LIBOR benchmark rates. As things currently stand, the LIBOR rate that appears on pages of a Reuters (or other) screen could go blank on 1st January 2022.
LIBOR is going nowhere fast. With $370 trillion of outstanding notional swaps tied to it, the desire to wean markets off this popular fix is going to be a long hard slog. The reasons for removing LIBOR are well rehearsed and the underlying intellectual rigour behind the arguments were compelling before the deluge of rate rigging allegations appeared.
The UK’s Cryptoassets Taskforce is comprised of HM Treasury, the FCA and the Bank of England. Not to be likened to the three witches from Macbeth who are often thought about at this time of year!! Just in time for Halloween, they have published a Final Report that sets the scene for the Cryptoassets, Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) sector in the UK from a policy and regulatory perspective.
The European Union (EU) Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR) is part of Europe’s continuing clampdown on potential risks in the banking & financial services sectors. Scheduled for introduction in Q3 2019, it requires firms to report details of their Securities Financing Transactions (SFT’s) to trade repositories. This includes a range of instruments including; Repos, Securities and Commodities Lending, Buy/Sell Backs, Margin Lending and Total Return Swaps.
With FX volatility now rising rapidly our three fintech entrepreneurs were planning how to disrupt the Foreign Exchange market (the only financial market that runs for 24 hours per day) with a revolutionary ‘follow-the-sun’ app. They were planning to set up a global, low-cost, transparent, real-time, digital, blockchain exchange staffed by robots.
One thing that often comes up, whether we are talking informally to market contacts, or engaged with clients and prospects, is the level of uncertainty around technology strategy.
The American Foreign Exchange Committee (FXC) has issued one of its letters last week addressed to all “Market Participants”. The FXC is an FX industry group that has been providing guidance to the market since 1978.
The 2018 Payment Services Directive (PSD2) opens up payments markets to new, radical service providers in an aim to create a cheaper, more efficient European payments market. It provides new opportunities for third parties to access banks’ internal data in real-time to improve customer service.
As the data publishing season for best execution begins, it is timely to look at what is required, and what will be required going forward.
Insurance managers and captive owners will recognise that building strategic partnerships is an essential part of their business, none more so than with chosen technology provider.
Football is a game of two halves but last night for English fans that added 4 minutes felt like another half! For the “football’s coming home” brigade it was a decent start. The debate around VAR was well and truly stoked following the game and the pundits debate on the efficiency of VAR continues! We “was robbed” a phrase that comes to mind! It is uncanny how this translates into parallels with current debate in the financial markets.
