14 December 2020

Steven Maijoor speaks at the third ECB roundtable on euro risk-free rates

The focus of the event was the fallbacks for EURIBOR, where working group on euro risk-free rates members will guide the audience through the recently launched public consultations on EURIBOR fallback trigger events and €STR-based EURIBOR fallback rates.

These roundtables, organised by the ECB, have become an annual appointment to discuss the state of play of the interest rate reform in the euro area. They bring together stakeholders from both the public and the private sectors. I fully support their aim, which is sharing the wealth of knowledge that the Working Group on Euro Risk-Free Rates has built over the last three years with a broad audience.

I would, therefore, like to thank the ECB for organising the roundtables on euro risk-free rates also this year, in digital format, and for inviting me.
Today, before listening to the presentations of the two Consultation Papers recently issued by the Working Group on Euro Risk-Free Rates, I would like to speak about ESMA’s outlook on the interest rates reform in the euro area.

EURIBOR fallback provision: a supervisory priority
In one year from now, ESMA will substitute the Belgian FSMA as supervisor of EURIBOR administrator, EMMI. We, at ESMA, are preparing ourselves for this new supervisory task and we are committed to managing this new responsibility in a smooth and effective way. As part of this preparation, we are cooperating with the FSMA to ensure continuity in the supervision of EURIBOR.

The FSMA has already authorised EMMI as administrator of EURIBOR under the Benchmarks Regulation. EU supervised entities can therefore continue using EURIBOR for the foreseeable future....

Full speech

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