Malaysia to phase out 9-month Klibor rate

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia's central bank on Thursday said it will phase out the nine-month tenure of its interbank benchmark rates, effective January 2018.

The decision to scrap the nine-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate (Klibor) was taken due to "limited market demand, relevancy and sufficiency of transactional data to support the rate setting process," Bank Negara Malaysia said in a statement.

Malaysia also offers 1-month, 2-month, 3-month, 6-month and 1-year Klibor rates.

"During the transitional period beginning 1 January 2017, all market participants with existing contractual agreements referencing the 9-month KLIBOR are expected to review their contracts to provide customers with alternative mechanisms," the central bank said, adding that new contracts should no longer use nine-month Klibor.

REUTERS