Unique global alternative legal and compliance services provider, Konexo, a division of Eversheds Sutherland, has forged an innovative and strategic collaboration with leading business and financial adviser Grant Thornton UK LLP and DXC Technology to provide an integrated solution to the Interbank Offered Rates (IBOR) transition. 

The evolving IBOR transition is amongst the most critical business, risk, legal and market driven change programs financial services companies will face over the next two years.

This carefully crafted, and mutually reinforcing collaboration will ensure that each team brings core capabilities to help clients meet the FCA’s 2022 deadline, and transition to a replacement rate before the IBOR rate discontinues.

IBOR, most prominently LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate), was the globally accepted key benchmark of interest rates that indicate borrowing costs between banks for major currencies and tenors. The benchmark has increasingly lost validity due to the rigging scandal that disrupted the city and because the market effectively shut-down through the financial crisis.

Brett Aubin, Head of Regulatory Response at Konexo, commented:

“As Financial Services organisations continue to deal with the consequences of the 2008 crisis, amongst unprecedented levels of commercial, regulatory and customer pressure, it is paramount that we service our clients differently. We recognise that for ‘wide problems’ like the IBOR transition, no single organisation can responsibly deliver an integrated solution out of their core strengths alone.

“This new, dynamic and innovative collaboration lets go of corporate ego to ensure clients receive effective, pragmatic, risk managed and cost optimized solutions. The teams combine specialist lawyers with the latest legal technologies and each participant delivers only to its greatest strengths.”

John Da Gama-Rose, Partner and Head of Capital Markets and Financial Services Business Consulting at Grant Thornton UK LLP, added:

“The challenges facing the financial services market in transitioning away from the long-established IBOR benchmark are paramount, and each organisation’s needs and response to this will vary. The forward-looking expertise in strategy, advisory and delivery within our financial services team helps ensure our clients are not only prepared for change, but best placed to capitalise and compete. 

“Our Expert Led model actively engages in building alliances within the ecosystem amongst legal firms, technology providers and Fintech innovators to deliver holistic solutions which add the right value to our clients.“

Rich Evans, Industry General Manager, Banking and Capital Markets at DXC Technology, said:

“The sheer multiplicity of IBOR-referencing products, stretching from OTC derivatives through syndicated loan portfolios to retail mortgages and automotive loans, means that most financial services organisations will be faced with complex and far-reaching technology change requirements over an extended period of IBOR Transition. DXC is enabling an important transformation in the legal services industry with the latest machine learning, AI and robotic automation technologies to deliver the complex system enhancements needed to carry out the changes demanded for IBOR transitioning.”