On 9 March 2020, the Bank of England (BoE) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a letter that they had sent to trade associations regarding how the discontinuation of LIBOR might affect their members and stakeholders.

The letter explains why LIBOR is ending, how this will affect trade associations and their members, the alternatives to using LIBOR and key dates coming up.

In particular the letter states: “Where your members or stakeholders rely on LIBOR, they will need to take action to ensure the end of LIBOR does not cause disruption to their business, and to given them certainty about how their obligations to pay or entitlements to receive interest will be affected after the end of 2021.”

In terms of next steps, the letter advises that the BoE and the FCA are running a free webinar session on 20 March which will discuss in more detail the key tasks needed to make the move from LIBOR.