Many of the world’s largest corporations are yet to sign up to a crucial derivatives market initiative designed to ease the transition away from Libor, underlining the challenges regulators still face in eradicating the controversial reference rate.
Diageo, Tesla and Walmart are among the companies that haven’t adhered to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s fallbacks protocol, a mechanism that allows various Libors to be replaced in old derivatives trades once these rates cease to exist. That stands in stark contrast to widespread take-up of the protocol among financial institutions.
Many multinationals say they are preparing for the Libor transition and some note there are good reasons they haven t signed the ISDA protocol, including Libor s still dominant role in US debt markets. The amount of financial contracts tied to US dollar Libor has actually increased by 12% since 2016 to US$223trn, according to a recent industry report.