The UK Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) has announced that all Swiss Franc LIBOR settings will either cease to be provided or will no longer be representative of the underlying market immediately after 31 December 2021 (refer to "FCA announcement on future cessation and loss of representativeness of the LIBOR benchmarks" dated 5 March 2021, which is available from the website of the FCA at www.fca.org.uk). As such, to preserve the functionality of the Cover Pool Swap and the Covered Bond Swaps after 31 December 2021, the following Amendments have been consented to by the Trustee to accommodate the phasing out of Swiss Franc LIBOR (in accordance with Clause 18(k) and 22.2 of the Trust Deed, and Condition 16 of the Notes issued under the Programme):
- Amendments to the swaps to simplify the structures of the underlying hedging arrangements in the Programme by combining, for each outstanding series of Covered Bonds, the relevant Covered Bond Swap and the relevant portion of the Cover Pool Swap. This results in the removal of the Swiss Franc LIBOR benchmark from the hedging, without changing or amending either the mortgage assets or the terms of the outstanding Covered Bonds or having an adverse effect on the cashflows available to Covered Bond holders. There are no Swiss Franc LIBOR references in any Covered Bonds and, as such, the terms of any outstanding Covered Bonds are unchanged (as of the date hereof, the Programme has two outstanding series of Covered Bonds – one denominated in EUR and one denominated in NOK with maturities in 2022 and 2023, respectively, both of which bear interest not linked to any LIBOR benchmark).
- Removal of the Pool Interest Rate Exposure Test. As the Issuer is able to adequately manage the interest rate risk arising from the outstanding Series of Covered Bonds under the Programme without the complexity of the current hedging arrangements, the Pool Interest Rate Exposure Test is no longer either needed or fit for purpose in the context of a programme where the interest rate risk is known and otherwise adequately hedged.
Unless the context otherwise requires, capitalised terms used but not defined in this Notice shall have the meaning given in the Covered Bond Programme Base Prospectus and related documentation.
UBS Group AG and UBS AG