LIBOR transition hedging closer

As LIBOR transition efforts race to the finish line for some settings on 31 December 2021, one question remains consistently implacable: how to transition hedged cash products and their related swaps at the same time and to the same destination?

Despite the publication of the ISDA 2020 IBOR Fallbacks Protocol in October 2020 and incremental, but significant, progress in European loan markets towards re-papering LIBOR-based facilities, lenders and swap counterparties are still grappling to overcome the hurdles involved with transitioning legacy hedging arrangements. The questions that need to be answered in order to effect a successful transition are largely commercial. However the legal framework for these questions has been continually evolving as contractual market solutions and legislative solutions have emerged in parallel.

In this article, we set out what will happen after 31 December and the key questions that lenders, borrowers and swap counterparties need to be asking themselves.