TOKYO -- Nikkei Inc. announced on Wednesday that it will change the benchmark interest rate used to calculate the Nikkei Stock Average Volatility Index, which tracks investor expectations about future fluctuations of the Nikkei 225.
Because it was announced that the yen-denominated London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) will be discontinued at the end of the year, Nikkei will begin using the Tokyo Term Risk Free Rate (TORF), an alternative benchmark, on Dec. 13.
LIBOR is widely used in financial markets. But it was announced that the yen LIBOR will be scrapped at the end of the year in response to the 2012 LIBOR scandal, in which bankers at several major financial institutions colluded to manipulate the benchmark rate. TORF is calculated and published by Tokyo-based QUICK Benchmarks Inc.
(Nikkei)
