ICE

ICE Benchmark Administration

Licensing & Data

ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) provides transparent, fair and sustainable access to the benchmarks for all users. IBA licenses the use or redistribution of the benchmarks on a commercial and reasonable basis, to help set standards of fairness and transparency in benchmark distribution and licensing.

IBA benchmark data is available on a real-time, intraday or delayed basis through redistribution partners. For ICE LIBOR and ICE Swap Rate, intraday data is available 4 hours after original publication time and delayed data is available 24 hours after original publication time. For LBMA Gold Price and LBMA Silver Price, intraday data is available 4 hours after original publication time and delayed data is available at midnight London time.

Clients wishing to use or redistribute IBA’s benchmarks require a license. Further information on the types of licenses available can be found below.

Licenses

Any entity or person that wishes to use IBA’s benchmark or other information and data needs to enter into an appropriate licence agreement with IBA. IBA currently makes available six types of licence agreements for its benchmarks and other information and data:

  • Usage Licences (e.g. for use in valuation and pricing activities, transactions and financial products)
  • Historical Data Access Licences
  • Market Data Vendor/Redistribution Licences
  • Trading/Clearing Venue Licences (e.g. for the creation, listing, trading, clearing and settlement of financial products)
  • Exchange Traded Product Licenses (e.g. for the creation and issuance of exchange traded funds)
  • Derived Benchmark Licenses (e.g. for the creation and of derived indices)

Please see our Master Licence Agreement and our Fee Schedules below or contact IBA at [email protected] for further details.

Where an entity or person wishes to use IBA’s benchmark or other information and data in a manner not contemplated by one of our existing licenses, it should contact IBA at [email protected] to discuss entering into an appropriate licence arrangement.

Data Vendors and Redistributors

Details of authorized data vendors and redistributors for IBA’s benchmark and other data can be obtained from [email protected]

Additional Access Options for ICE LIBOR

All of IBA's benchmarks can be accessed from redistributors and data vendors. For historical continuity, clients with a license for LIBOR have two additional options for accessing the rates:

  • LIBOR™ Multicast
  • IBA's MFT service
  • IBA's daily email distribution

MFT Service

  • Licensed clients are able to download LIBOR rate information from ICE MFT servers at time of publication (around 11:55am London time)
  • Files are published in FIXML format with one file for each currency
  • Clients are also able to access historical LIBOR rates files, going back to 1st June 2004
  • In order to set up access to this service, clients are required to generate SSH keys and provide these to: [email protected]
  • MFT Connectivity rules can be accessed here

E-mail Service

  • Licensed clients can choose to subscribe to the ICE LIBOR e-mail service. Files are attached to the email in FIXML format with one file for each currency
  • Although every effort is made by IBA to provide the email service in a timely manner each day, clients for whom access to the rates is time-critical should use a data vendor or IBA's MFT service
  • In order to set up access to this service, clients are required to provide an email address(es), to which the data should be sent, to: [email protected]

Technical Documentation

Sample Files - ICE LIBOR

ICE LIBOR rates files are in FIXML format. Sample files are provided to help clients in setting up their systems.

Sample Files - ICE Swap Rate

Sample Files - LBMA Gold and LBMA Silver Price

Visit the LBMA Gold and Silver Price page for sample files

Note: Clients may find it easier to view the contents of the FIXML file using Microsoft Excel to tabulate the data into headed columns. To do this, save the file to your computer, then drag and drop the file onto an open Microsoft Excel window and select 'As an XML table' when presented with the 'Open XML' dialogue box (you may need to click 'OK' again if asked whether to create a schema based on the XML source data).

UK Government Statement Regarding LIBOR Transition and Intended Legislation

The UK Government announced on 23 June 2020, that it intends to legislate to ensure that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has the appropriate regulatory powers to manage and direct any wind-down period prior to eventual LIBOR cessation.

The new regulatory powers would enable the FCA to direct a methodology change for LIBOR, in circumstances where the FCA has found that:

  • The benchmark is not representative of the market it seeks to measure;
  • The benchmark’s representativeness will not be restored; and
  • Action is necessary to protect consumers and/or to ensure market integrity and it is feasible for the administrator to change the methodology in the way required.

Existing law would also be strengthened to prohibit the use of LIBOR where its representativeness will not be restored, whilst giving the FCA the ability to specify limited continued use in legacy contracts.

The FCA has welcomed the announcement and proposes to publish statements of policy on its approach to potential use of these powers following further engagement with stakeholders in the UK and internationally. In particular, the FCA has also noted that it will seek stakeholder views on possible methodology changes based on the alternative risk free rates chosen in each of the LIBOR currency jurisdictions, and on the consensus already established in international and UK markets on a way of calculating an additional fixed credit spread that reflects the expected difference between LIBOR and risk-free interest rates.

Both the UK Government and the FCA advise that market participants should continue to focus the on active transition of legacy contracts on terms that they themselves agree with their counterparties, because this is the only way to have certainty as to contractual continuity and control over contractual terms. They caution that parties who rely on regulatory action, enabled by the proposed legislation, will not have control over the economic terms of that action. Moreover regulatory action may not be able to address all issues or be practicable in all circumstances, for example where a methodology change is not feasible, or would not protect consumers or market integrity.

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