Introduction
The IBOR reform is the biggest change in the capital markets since the introduction of the Euro at the start of the 21st century. For the past decade, the global regulatory community has driven a reform of the interbank offered rates (IBORs) in order to renew confidence in these critical benchmarks.
In the Eurozone, the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR) and the Euro Overnight Index Average (EONIA) have been considered critical benchmarks. In September 2018, the ECB's Euro Risk-Free Rate Working Group recommended that the Euro Short Term Rate (€STR) as the replacement rate for EONIA, while also providing the basis for developing fallbacks for contracts referencing EURIBOR. With the new hybridized EURIBOR now compliant to the EU’s Benchmarks Regulation, Eurex turned its focus to the overnight rate transition from EONIA to the €STR, launching €STR swaps in November 2019 and coordinating with global CCPs on the July 2020 EONIA-€STR Discounting/Price Alignment Interest (PAI) switch. In support of an orderly transition to the new reference rate, Eurex launched its Three-Month Euro STR Futures in January 2023. This product is an important milestone in establishing €STR as the new benchmark risk-free rate for Euro-unsecured overnight transactions. With the €STR Futures, Eurex offers a listed and centrally cleared solution to trading or hedging the new risk-free rate.
EONIA has been officially discontinued as of the start of 2022, and transition to the €STR on Eurex has been completed with all legacy EONIA transactions shifted to the €STR rate. Furthermore, the final CHF, GBP, and JPY Libor references were transitioned into their respective risk-free rates in December 2021.
Contacts
Fixed Income Funding & Financing Sales Philip Simons T +44 207 8 62 72 39 philip.simons@deutsche-boerse.com | Equity & Index Sales Damien Zinck T +1 312 5 44 10 51 | Operational Inquiries OTC Clearing T +49 692 1 11 28 28 |
