State Bank of India (SBI) is ready to embrace new recommended interest rate benchmarks necessitated from LIBOR cessation for its day-to-day businesses and in product pricing.
All the systems and processes in SBI are aligned to support transactions linked to these Alternate Reference Rates (ARR), it said in a press statement.
SBI has already started offering ARR-based products to the customers through its domestic and foreign branches. Additionally, the bank is at the forefront in spreading awareness about this transition among its customers and extensive client groups through curated Knowledge Sharing Sessions.
Ashwini Kumar Tewari, Managing Director (International Banking, Technology & Subsidiaries), SBI said, “LIBOR Transition is a significant financial event for international financial markets. As the country’s largest bank, SBI has been assiduously tracking the global developments in the LIBOR space to align with the best practices and has proactively modified its systems and processes to embrace the change from LIBOR to ARR. Our readiness will assist the smooth transition in embracing ARR mechanism in the Indian banking industry at large.”
January 01, 2022, is crucial for the LIBOR transition process since all the new transactions will be referenced to the new benchmark rates from this date as per the recommendations of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other banking regulators across the world
SBI has been one of the first banks to have signed the ISDA 2020 IBOR Fallbacks protocol on December 11, 2020, and has already demonstrated its readiness by executing several SOFR linked transactions/deals during the year 2021, it said in a press statement.
