On 25 September, based on recommendations by the Fair and Effective Markets Review, the government launched a consultation (see External Links) on extending the new legislation the government put in place to regulate LIBOR to cover further seven major benchmarks in the foreign exchange, fixed income and commodity markets.
The government is consulting on extending the legislation to the following seven major benchmarks:
- Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) and the Repurchase Overnight Index Average (RONIA), which both serve as reference rates for overnight index swaps
- WM/Reuters 4pm London Fix, which is the dominant global foreign exchange benchmark
- ISDAFix, which is the principal global benchmark for swap rates and spreads for interest rate swap transactions
- London Gold Fixing and the LMBA Silver Price, which determine the price of gold and silver in the London market
- ICE Brent futures contract, traded on the ICE Futures Europe (IFEU) exchange, which acts as the crude oil futures market’s principal financial benchmark.
The consultation will run from 25 September to 23 October 2014. As part of the consultation process, the government will hold targeted industry roundtables with affected parties.
The Fair and Effective Markets Review is being led by Bank of England Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking, Minouche Shafik, with Martin Wheatley (Chief Executive Officer, FCA) and Charles Roxburgh (Director General, Financial Services, HM Treasury) as co-chairs.