ICC Qatar, Refinitiv and Ernst & Young organized a webinar on: ‘Beyond LIBOR: Challenges, Developments and Opportunities in the LIBOR Transition’

9 March 2022

On Wednesday, the International Chamber of Commerce Qatar (ICC Qatar) in collaboration with Refinitiv and Ernst & Young, held a webinar on ‘Beyond LIBOR: Challenges, Developments and Opportunities in the LIBOR Transition’. The webinar was comprised of keynote presentations from Mr. Alexandre Hardouin, Director, Fixed Income Desktop, Refinitiv, Mr. Kedar Desai, Director, Financial Services, Ernst & Young Consulting, and Mr. Vincenzo Dimase, Global Director, Sales Strategy & Execution, FX & Post Trade Refinitiv The webinar highlighted; the new benchmark rates (SOFR, SONIA, €STR, SARON, TONA, Cash Rate AONIA, Enhanced CORRA, SORA, and HONIA), the techniques to manage the transition, and the next steps to follow. The virtual event was attended by bank representatives, legal experts, and many private companies, including insurance companies and exchange firms. In his speech, Mr. Vincenzo Dimase opened the webinar by saying "As a trusted partner, Refinitiv delivers the data, tools, analytics and support that firms need for a smooth transition. Following the Alternative Reference Rates Committee’s (ARRC) March 2021 announcement that it had selected Refinitiv, we have launched USD IBOR Cash Fallbacks to facilitate the industry transition away from USD LIBOR". The second session was delivered by Mr. Kedar Desai. He added “AS USD LIBOR transition to SOFR gathers momentum in 2022, it will be interesting to see if the market for credit sensitive rates develops further. Currently it has not been endorsed by regulatory bodies, though we have seen low volumes of trades using credit sensitive rates.” Mr. Alexandre Hardouin delivered the third session of the webinar. Addressing the participants, he stated: “In December 2021, LIBOR setting publication ceased on over two dozen settings. But the transition is far from over as phasing out continues for legacy contracts, USD / EUR have not fully migrated to new RFRs and other jurisdictions are just starting their Libor migration journey”.Alexandre Hardouin Director, Fixed Income Desktop, Refinitiv Alexandre Hardouin manages the Refinitiv Fixed Income Desktop business globally, driving the strategy to serve both sell-side and buy-side market participants. Alexandre previously worked as a sales trader and in a financial software start-up prior to joining Reuters. Afterwards, he pursued a 20-year career in client-facing and product management roles with specific expertise in fixed income markets and analytics. Alexandre has been deeply involved in Libor transition in the past few years.Kedar Desai Director, Financial Services, Ernst & Young Consulting Kedar has 15+ years in financial services, and before joining EY worked in London with Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, HSBC, and Barclays, across front office and risk, implementing large scale transformations related to Basel III, Stress Testing, and other PRA and ECB led regulatory initiatives. Currently he is engaged in leading the IBOR Transformation programmes for multiple EY clients across the middle east. He is a subject matter expert on IBOR and has led front to back changes readying clients for new RFR issuance and to transition existing contracts. \n