The speech shifted the nature of the interest rate benchmark reform dramatically, from the pursuit of LIBOR enhancement based on the assumption that its publication would be continued to initiatives for the transition to new interest rate benchmarks on the assumption that LIBOR would be permanently ceased.
Then, as I mentioned in the beginning, the third and final stage of the LIBOR transition started in March 2021 against a background of the formal announcement with regard to the permanent cessation of LIBOR for all currencies in the future. Let me turn to the initiatives taken in Japan corresponding to each of these three stages (Chart 1).