Many thanks to Tom [Wipf] and the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) for the invitation to join today’s SOFR symposium and to John [Williams] for his remarks. Introduction I have spoken on the transition from Libor each year since 2017 when we set out that despite the significant improvements in its governance and oversight, there were increasing challenges in anchoring the submissions on which those rates were based, to the greatest extent possible, in actual transactions. The underlying market that Libor seeks to measure – the market for unsecured wholesale term lending between banks – is no longer sufficiently active to support such a widely used reference rate. This has not changed in the last four years. At that time we highlighted the market disruption that could stem from an unplanned disappearance of Libor. Working together with the panel banks and the wider market, it was in the interest of all involved that we stabilised those rates until such times as transition arrangements were sufficiently well advanced. Well the summit, or summits that are the cessation dates for Libor are now clearly on the horizon with the FCA announcing earlier in the year that Friday 31 December 2021 will be the final publication date for panel bank sterling, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and euro Libor rates along with a number of lesser used US dollar tenors. The remaining US dollar tenors will cease in mid-2023. tweet at 10:48am: BOE GOV. BAILEY: THE ACTIVE AND LIQUID UNDERLYING MARKETS THAT SUPPORT OVERNIGHT RATES HAVE SHOWN RESILIENCE, AND WE ANTICIPATE LIQUIDITY TO FLOW THROUGH THESE MARKETS. tweet at 10:52am: BOE GOV. BAILEY: INTER DEALER MARKET MAY BE OVER 90% SONIA. tweet at 10:55am: BOE GOV. BAILEY: CASH PRODUCTS MUST ADOPT A ROBUST FALLBACK ARRANGEMENT.

tweet at 3:15pm: FED'S BULLARD: U.S. WILL SEE INFLATION IN 2021 AND SOME WILL "HANG ON" IN 2022 tweet at 3:15pm: FED'S BULLARD: I THINK INFLATION WOULD BE 2.5% TO 3% IN 2021, AND 2.5% IN 2022. tweet at 3:18pm: FED'S BULLARD: IT'S TOO EARLY TO PREDICT SIGNIFICANT EMPLOYMENT GROWTH, THE PANDEMIC ISN'T OVER YET.