Singapore to move ahead with Sora transition by year-end

Singapore

SINGAPORE will press ahead with its industry transition to the Singapore Overnight Rate Average (Sora) as the new interest rate benchmark by the end of this year, even as the discontinuation of a key global benchmark - the scandal-tainted London Inter-bank Offered Rate (Libor) - could be pushed to mid-2023.

The cessation of the widely-referenced USD Libor was earlier slated to be end-2021, but administrator ICE Benchmark Administration recently proposed to delay its discontinuation. This reprieve gives the market more time to prepare, as the global financial industry face challenges making the switch to other alternatives, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic delaying progress in the phasing out of Libor.