Felicity Barber, Executive Speech Writer, Communications and Outreach

On Monday, July 15, New York Fed President John Williams spoke at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) about the transition away from LIBOR.

Betsy Bourassa, Corporate Communications Associate, Communications and Outreach

In a speech last week, New York Fed Executive Vice President and General Counsel Michael Held discussed the transition away from the widely used reference rate known as the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). In his remarks, he described LIBOR’s weaknesses, the threats posed by the fact that it could soon disappear, and the urgent work under way to transition to alternative reference rates, including the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR).

New York Fed

LIBOR is often dubbed “the world’s most important number” and you’ve likely heard about widespread manipulation of the benchmark rate that resulted in significant fines for some banks.

Remarks by Simon Potter, Head of the Markets Group, as prepared for delivery on July 12, 2017 at the FX Week USA Conference

This speech was originally published on the New York Fed website.

Good morning. It is a pleasure to return to FX Week USA, and I would like to thank FX Week for the invitation. Foreign exchange (FX) market participants play important roles in their interactions with the New York Fed. They act as FX trading counterparties of the New York Fed and they provide information on market conditions to support the Desk’s monitoring of financial markets and transmission of policy. I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you today. Before I begin, I would also like to note that my comments today reflect my own views and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System[1]. However, remarks on the expectations for FX counterparties reflect the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.