The Fédération Bancaire Française Publishes its Benchmark Documentations
Users of FBF Master Agreements will benefit from new sets of documentation to facilitate compliance with EU Benchmarks Regulation.
The Fédération Bancaire Française ("FBF") published in February 2020, two new sets of documentation to enable users of the FBF market documentation to comply with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of June 8, 2016, on indices used as benchmarks in financial instruments and financial contracts ("EU Benchmarks Regulation").
The FBF published a new Technical Schedule ("Benchmarks Event Technical Schedule") providing for fallbacks following the occurrence of trigger events affecting interest rates, FX, and equity indices used in transactions governed by an FBF Master Agreement. Members of the FBF working group were keen to adopt harmonized solutions, consistent with those published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. ("ISDA") in the 2018 Benchmarks Supplement.
For parties who have entered into transactions governed by an FBF Master Agreement but referring to ISDA Definitions, the FBF published template "bridge" provisions, allowing the use of the ISDA 2018 Benchmarks Supplement with an FBF master agreement.
This new documentation is available in French and in English on the FBF website.
This publication is the first step of a larger project undertaken by the FBF to update its documentation in relation to interest rate indices.
