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The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) came into widespread use in the 1970s as a reference interest rate for transactions in offshore Eurodollar markets. [25] [26] [27] In 1984, it became apparent that an increasing number of banks were trading actively in a variety of relatively new market instruments, notably interest rate swaps, foreign currency options and forward rate agreements.
For interest rate swaps, the Swap rate is the fixed rate that the swap "receiver" demands in exchange for the uncertainty of having to pay a short-term (floating) rate, e.g. 3 months LIBOR over time. (At any given time, the market's forecast of what LIBOR will be in the future is reflected in the forward LIBOR curve.)
TED spread (in red) and components during the financial crisis of 2007–08 TED spread (in green), 1986 to 2015. The TED spread is the difference between the interest rates on interbank loans and on short-term U.S. government debt ("T-bills").
In 2022, the LIBOR Act passed by the U.S. Congress established SOFR as a default replacement rate for LIBOR contracts that lack mechanisms to deal with LIBOR's cessation. [2] The Act also grants a safe harbor to LIBOR contracts that transition to SOFR. [2] Previously, SOFR was seen as the likely successor of LIBOR in the US since at least 2021. [1]
The benchmark rate used to price many US financial securities is the three-month US dollar Libor rate. Up until the mid-1980s, the Treasury bill rate was the leading reference rate. However, it eventually lost its benchmark status to Libor due to pricing volatility caused by periodic, large swings in the supply of bills.
The other leg of the swap is generally LIBOR, but may be a fixed rate or potentially another constant maturity rate. Constant maturity swaps can either be single currency or cross currency swaps . Therefore, the prime factor for a constant maturity swap is the shape of the forward implied yield curves .
ISDAFIX refers to a worldwide common reference rate value for fixed interest rate swap rates. ISDAFIX was restructured and renamed "ICE Swap Rate" in April 2015. [1]ISDAFIX was developed in 1998 as a cooperative effort of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) with Reuters (now Thomson Reuters) and InterCapital Brokers (now ICAP). [2]
The London Interbank Offered Rate or Libor, once dubbed the world's most important number, will be replaced at the end of December with "risk free" rates compiled by central banks.