On October 10, 2016, the Bank of England published a consultation paper on the Bank's proposals to reform the Sterling Overnight Index Average Interest Rate Benchmark, known as SONIA. The BoE, which took over as administrator of SONIA on April 25, 2016, notes that despite being viewed as critical for the sterling financial markets, SONIA is currently based on a market for brokered deposits which has limited transaction volumes. The consultation builds on the Bank's earlier consultation in mid-2015, where it proposed that SONIA should capture a broader range of unsecured overnight deposits by including bilaterally negotiated transactions alongside brokered transactions. The Bank is seeking feedback on its proposals in four areas: (i) the SONIA calculation methodology: the Bank is proposing to switch the current calculation to measuring the average rate using a volume-weighted median, rather than a volume weighted mean; (ii) the definition of SONIA: the Bank is proposing to amend the definition of SONIA to reflect recent EU and IOSCO benchmark regulatory reforms and to account for international best practices for benchmark administration; (iii) transition planning: the Bank is working with market participants to transition from the current benchmark to the proposed reformed SONIA between October and December of 2017; and (iv) publication policies: the Bank is proposing to publish SONIA at 9:00 a.m. on the business day following the business to which the data pertains and to charge users who receive SONIA data on a timely basis directly from the Bank. Responses to the consultation are due by December 31, 2016. The Bank is expected to publish the final methodology for and definition of SONIA, the transition arrangements and the publication and licensing arrangements in early 2017.
The consultation paper is available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/Documents/soniareformcp1016.pdf.
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