Market Matters

The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is set to be phased out within three years, creating arguably the biggest challenge facing global finance today. Moving away from a benchmark referenced in everything from consumer loans and mortgages to $190 trillion of interest rate derivatives has far reaching consequences. In the United States, J.P. Morgan has been providing leadership to develop a market around a new dollar reference rate called the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR.  In this episode, we unpack the challenges ahead with guest-speaker Nadine Bates, mortgage-finance firm Fannie Mae’s Treasurer, and Sandie O’Connor, who has worked at J.P. Morgan for over 30 years and chaired the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC). O’Connor and Bates discuss why the ARRC selected SOFR as the U.S. dollar alternative reference rate, how to prepare for 2022, and issuance to date. Fannie Mae pioneered the market’s first ever SOFR securities. This podcast was recorded on February 15th, 2019. The views in