Wall Street Watchdog Joins Banks in Fretting About Zombie Libor
- CFTC reviewing proposals to address issues that could arise
- Agency’s chairman says he wants to avoid a ‘Libor apocalypse’
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Heath Tarbert
Photographer: Kyle Grillot/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
“Zombie Libor” and “Libor apocalypse” are probably phrases that send chills down the spines of Wall Street traders. It turns out the terms are also triggering anxiety among swaps regulators.
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Heath Tarbert said Wednesday that his agency is tracking the threat of the London Interbank Offered Rate not entirely going away when banks are no longer required to provide submissions used to calculate it. That could lead to a situation in which the benchmark still exists, but isn’t a legitimate borrowing rate.