Authors: Deepak Sitlani, Richard Levy, Jeremy Stokeld, Phoebe Coutts, Carson Welsh, Benedict James, Suzanna Brunton, Melissa Ferraro

UK - LIBOR transition – tough legacy contracts

“Tough legacy” in the context of transition away from LIBOR refers to existing LIBOR referencing contracts that are unable, before the end of 2021, to either convert to a non-LIBOR rate or be amended to add fallbacks. While significant progress has been made in relation to new contracts either referencing a risk-free rate (RFR) or incorporating fallbacks, market participants and industry bodies have flagged to regulators that there will be a number of legacy LIBOR referencing contracts without appropriate fallbacks that will continue post 2021.