Asia debt market suffers SOFR inertia

Issuers of floating rate notes stick with Libor in absence of term version of risk-free rate

Familiarity breeds contempt, so the saying goes. But for bond users in Asia, the reverse seems to be true as the region’s debt markets cling to the long-standing Libor benchmark despite its widely anticipated demise at the end of 2021.

Issuance of floating rate notes linked to US dollar Libor in the region has soared from $10 billion in the first quarter of 2019 to $26 billion in the same period this year. Volumes only tailed off as the coronavirus pandemic extended its grip across financial