LIBOR to SONIA transition

For more information see our articles written by Kath Shimmin, on SONIA on 30 January 2020 and the impact of COVID-19 on the interest rate benchmark on 22 May 2020.

Although this may seem a long way off, a huge amount of work is being done by the industry to prepare for the transition, and it’s important that businesses start thinking now about how the change could affect them.

Summary of recommendations

1. SONIA remains the Working Group’s recommended alternative to Sterling LIBOR, implemented via a compounded in arrears methodology, and loan markets should now move consistently towards this.
2. Use of a Five Banking Days Lookback without Observation Shift is recommended as the standard approach by the Working Group. This aligns with the approach recommended by the Alternative Reference Rate Committee for US dollar loan markets and in the Working Group’s view is most likely to be made rapidly available. Whilst this approach is the recommendation, where lenders are also able to offer lookback with an observation shift this remains a viable and robust alternative (see the Annex below for the comparison between these two approaches).
3. Where an interest rate floor is used, the Working Group recognises that it may be necessary to apply the floor to each daily interest rate before compounding.
4. Prepayments. The Working Group recommends that accrued interest should be paid at the time of principal prepayment.

Loan Market Association (LMA) documents

The LMA have published an exposure draft of a compounded SONIA based Sterling Term and Revolving Facilities Agreement and notes.

In our next issue we will examine in more detail how these documents work.

These are available on the LMA Website.

Bank of England (BoE)

The BoE website has lots of information on the LIBOR to SONIA transition.