On 8 July 2021, Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued a circular to all authorised institutions (AIs) requesting them to give a further push to promote the corporate sector’s awareness of LIBOR transition.
HKMA requested each AI to (i) distribute a leaflet (enclosed with the circular) by 31 July 2021 to all of its corporate customers that have outstanding LIBOR-linked contracts with the AI; and (ii) send an email confirmation to HKMA after completing that exercise.
On 12 November 2020, the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (“APLMA”) published two discussion draft facility agreements (the “Facility Agreements”) referencing risk-free reference rates (“RFRs”) for US dollar syndicated loan transactions in the Asia Pacific region. Until recently, there has been a lack of market standard for RFR calculation formulae, pricing methodology, and institution operational practice in the Asia loan market.
Continue Reading APLMA launches the first SOFR-based facility agreements for syndicated loans in Asia Pacific
The first government to issue risk-free rate (“RFR”) referenced notes in Asia is Singapore.
In August 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) auctioned off S$500 million of six-month floating rate notes (“FRN”) with a spread over compounded Singapore Overnight Rate Average (“SORA”) in arrears.
SORA is the recommended alternative to the Singapore Interbank Offered