Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, today announced that ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (IBA) has published an update regarding the U.S. Dollar ICE Bank Yield Index.
The fully transaction-based U.S. Dollar ICE Bank Yield Index is designed to measure the yields at which investors are willing to invest U.S. dollar funds in large, internationally active banks on a wholesale, unsecured basis over one-month, three-month and six-month periods. It has been developed to meet the potential benchmark needs of lenders, borrowers and other users of non-derivative (or “cash”) products that have historically referenced short-term interest rate benchmarks, such as LIBOR, in their contracts.
IBA published a white paper introducing the U.S. Dollar ICE Bank Yield Index on January 24, 2019, which included the results of a period of testing of the preliminary methodology and asked market participants and stakeholders for their feedback.
IBA is now publishing this update in orderto:
1. Provide more detailed information regarding certain aspects of the index, in light of feedback received to date;
2. Provide market participants with updated results of testing of the preliminary index methodology during the period from January 2018 to the end of March 2019, which are also available on IBA’s website; and
3. Extend the feedback period to May 31, 2019, which should be provided via email to IBA@theice.com.
IBA intends to consider and take account of the feedback received to date and any new responses before finalizing the U.S. Dollar ICE Bank Yield Index methodology and undertaking a period of production-standard testing. If the market’s response remains encouraging, future testing is successful and global banks continue to support the index, IBA anticipates launching the index in 2020.
There is no guarantee that IBA will continue to test the U.S. Dollar ICE Bank Yield Index, be able to source data to derive the index or publish the index in the future. Users of LIBOR should not rely on the potential publication of the U.S. Dollar ICE Bank Yield Index when developing and executing transition or fallback plans.
