Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wants to see banks, life insurers and other organizations preparing now to shift away from the Libor interest rate benchmark Jan. 1, 2022.
Yellen and other top federal regulators are calling for U.S. companies to tie the rates in variable-rate contracts to the new Secure Overnight Financing Rate benchmark.
"We have reached a critical juncture and more must be done to facilitate an orderly transition," Yellen said last week, at a Financial Stability Oversight Council videoconference meeting.
Although many market players are starting to prepare for the Libor-to-SOFR transition, "many segments, including business loans, are well behind where they should be at this stage in the transition," Yellen said.
The world's financial services regulators have been working to kill Libor because of concerns that the system used to create the Libor benchmark is too easy to manipulate.
Yellen said she worries that companies could adopt SOFR alternatives that have the same kinds of problems Libor has.
Randal Quarles, the Federal Reserve vice chairman for supervision, blasted companies that are resisting the shift to SOFR.
"Some market participants seem to believe that the remorseless evolution of the universe will somehow not involve them," Quarles said. "Others have adopted a posture of strategic procrastination, watching as others take the steps to prepare for the imminent end of Libor. The deniers and the laggards are engaging in magical thinking. Libor is over."
What's FSOC?
FSOC is an organization that's supposed to help federal agencies monitor and manage trends and events that could cripple the U.S. financial system.
Yellen is the council chairperson.
Thomas Workman, the former president of the Life Insurance Council of New York, serves as FSOC's independent voting member with insurance expertise.
Eric Cioppa, the Maine insurance superintendent, serves as a non-voting member on the council on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Steven Seitz, the director of the Treasury Department's Federal Insurance Officer, also serves as a non-voting member.
