- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2022-12-19T17:52:00
The Federal Reserve Board adopted a rule that will officially set the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) as the fallback benchmark rate in financial contracts that reference the expiring London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
The Fed’s rule, adopted Friday, will take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. It will apply to affected financial contracts after June 30, 2023, when U.S. dollar LIBOR panels end.
SOFR is a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by U.S. Treasury securities. Congress in December 2021 enacted the LIBOR Act, which ordered SOFR replace overnight, one-month, three-month, six-month, and 12-month LIBOR benchmark rate in contracts subject to the act. The law also stipulated LIBOR contracts adopting a benchmark rate selected by the Fed will not be interrupted or terminated following LIBOR’s replacement.
THIS IS MEMBERS-ONLY CONTENT. To continue reading, choose one of the options below.
News and analysis for the well-informed compliance or audit exec.
Annual Membership best value
Subscribe now for $365
Our lowest price ($1 per day) for one year.
The Division of Examinations at the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a risk alert to aid registered investment advisers and investment companies in their transition efforts away from the London Interbank Offered Rate.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed a rule that would replace certain swap rate clearing requirements pegged to the London Interbank Offered Rate with other alternative reference rates that are less susceptible to manipulation.
Companies looking to avoid running afoul of the SEC in their LIBOR transition efforts would be wise to include fallback language in their contracts and investments that reference the soon-expiring benchmark rate.
The U.S. Supreme Court extended the statute of limitations for businesses attempting to challenge some federal regulations, allowing regulated entities a longer timeline to appeal a decision.
The Supreme Court of the United States overturned a long-held precedent in which courts deferred to federal agencies in interpreting complex or ambiguous regulations–a decision that could make thousands of federal regulations more vulnerable to legal challenges.
Financial institutions would be required to conduct more thorough risk assessments on their anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism programs under a new rule proposed by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
