The race to ensure that hundreds of thousands of contracts have adequate fallbacks in place when existing interbank offered rates (Ibors) such as Libor, which expires in 2021, has gathered significant pace this year, with the derivatives space bounding to the front of the pack.

As these benchmarks expire, it’s crucial to ensure that existing contracts referring directly to the rate have fallback language in place. The New York Fed, the entity behind the secured overnight financing rate (Sofr) – the US successor to the US dollar Libor - says that there are currently more than $200 trillion of contracts outstanding that rely on US dollar Libor alone.

With less than $500 million of daily three-month trades taking place every day that are the basis for creating the Libor curve, there is an enormous reliance on a small, fragile and potentially shrinking base rate.

Sandie O’Connor, chief regulatory affairs officer at...