EURIBOR heading for survival

Tuesday’s statement in Brussels by Jean-Paul Servais, that Belgian’s Financial Services and Markets Authority expects the reformed EURIBOR to be approved for use under the Benchmarks Regulation by the end of 2019, and possibly this summer, carries weight because he is its chairman, and because it was endorsed by an EC official, Tilman Luder. The new EURIBOR will be based on a mixture of actual trade data (where available) and other data where not – which can involve the kind of expert judgment that the Bank of England and the Fed are adamant must not continue for GBP and USD LIBOR.  The possibility of a divergence in approach emerged in March and this reinforces the prospect of it happening.