 Good afternoon, everybody. It's 2.30 and I suppose we can start. Welcome to the third roundtable on Euro risk-free rates, this time done completely remotely in view of the circumstances. My name is William Levyfeld. I'm a press officer at the ECB and also working to support the working group on risk-free rates and I will try to lead you, guide you through the agenda this afternoon. Just one important thing is we will record the event and we will make it available in the next few days, the entire recording on the working group pages on the ECB website. The focus today will be on URIBO fallback rates and more specifically on the two recently published consultations on that topic, one on URIBO fallback rate trigger events or what kind of events could trigger the use of fallback rates and a second one on Euro STR based fallback rates that could be used as fallback for URIBO. There will be panels on these two topics and following these panels there will be Q&A sessions and the audience, so everybody checking in at the moment will have the option to ask questions and for this we have the specific Q&A function in Webex and you can find this if you move your mouse a little bit and then probably the second dot on the right side, the button with the three little dots on it, if you click on that there you will find an option called Q&A and this will open on your right side a small window which will enable you to ask your questions. Before we start with the panels there will be keynote speeches as shown in the agenda and the keynote speeches will be by Isabel Schnabel, member of the Executive Board of the ECB, by Teneit Putrakul, CFO of ING and Chair of the Working Group on Risk-Free Rates, by Tilman Lüder, Head of the Securities Markets Unit, FISMA at the European Commission and by Staven Mayor, the Chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA. I will now give the floor to Isabel Schnabel for the welcome address. From my side a warm welcome to the third roundtable of the industry working group on euro risk-free rates. This year has brought unprecedented challenges on many fronts, not least it has forced us to transition to virtual modes of working. I very much hope that the public health situation will soon allow us to meet again in person. Despite the challenging circumstances I'm happy to see that so many of you have joined today's virtual event representing the full range of stakeholders from the private financial and non-financial sectors as well as the public sector. The working group was established in 2017 to proactively address vulnerabilities related to EONIA and the RIBOR, thus following up on the recommendations issued by the Financial Stability Board. Looking back we can all be proud of the considerable progress that has been made today. Today's roundtable will provide a platform to exchange views on the development of robust fallback provisions for your RIBOR, which remains a systemically relevant benchmark. Based on two recently released public consultations we will also consider the role of the ECB's euro short term rate, the euro SCR, in establishing resilient fallback provisions. So why is there a need for robust RIBOR fallback provisions? Financial institutions, non-financial institutions and consumers continue to use your RIBOR as the benchmark for a variety of financial instruments and contracts. The administrator of your RIBOR, the European Money Markets Institute, has been authorized to provide the rate under the hybrid methodology by its current supervisor, the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority. As a result, your RIBOR is still used extensively in both new and legacy contracts for cash and derivatives products. Given that your RIBOR remains operational, why do we even need to discuss fallback arrangements? Let me answer this question metaphorically. Fallback provisions are like seed belts. In the improbable event of a car accident, fastened seed belts substantially reduce the likelihood of injury. Fallback provisions for benchmark rates serve a similar purpose. Many contracts in financial markets make reference to benchmark rates, including your RIBOR. If the benchmark rate ceased to exist, the absence of a fallback rate would expose the counterparties to substantial risk. Fallback provisions therefore act as seed belts for contractual arrangements in financial markets. By ensuring the continuity of a contract, robust fallbacks prevented potential losses from materializing. In fact, there is already a legal requirement to use fallback provisions. The EU Benchmarks Regulation requires all supervised entities to draw up robust plans to mitigate the potential impact of a benchmark being discontinued. We will hear more about the current regulatory and supervising landscape from the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority, later in the session. In addition to these legal requirements, there is also clear financial stability justification to ensure there are workable fallback provisions that reduce contractual uncertainties in the event of your RIBOR seizing to exist. I assume we can all agree that your RIBOR fallback provisions are indeed essential. However, this basic premise begs a more difficult question. What are feasible alternative rates that can be used if a fallback scenario is triggered? In an effort to address this question, the working group has recently launched two public consultations. Stakeholders can contribute to these consultations until the 15th of January 2021. The objectives of the two consultations will be presented and discussed over the course of this roundtable event. The public consultations built on a common theme, namely the use of the ECB's EuroSTR in the proposed fallback measures. For the public consultation, the working group has used two alternative EuroSTR-based approaches to approximate a term rate that could serve as a fallback. First, the working group has analyzed the overnight index swap OIS market and proposed a methodology to derive a forward-looking term rate. Second, the working group has used real-life values of the EuroSTR and compounded them over the interest period, thus deriving a backward-looking term rate. The EuroSTR is a suitable rate for use in the RIBOR fallback arrangements. It is designed to meet the IOPSCO principles. Moreover, it fulfills the requirements that are deemed essential for a fallback rate. It is robust and reliable. It is simple in construction and it is determined in a transparent way with the market-neutral authority, the ECB, acting as administrator. Importantly, the EuroSTR remains available during periods of market dislocation. The market stress observed during the coronavirus pandemic has underscored the relevance of this criterion. At the height of the crisis, volumes underpinning the EuroSTR increased in contrast to volumes observed for longer tenors in the unsecured market segment. A high level of liquidity in the unsecured segment is concentrated in the overnight maturity, thus anchoring the EuroSTR based on a large pool of daily transactions. Just a few days ago, the ECB published its first annual review of the methodology used to calculate the EuroSTR. This review confirms that the methodology correctly reflects the developments in the overnight unsecured money market and thus appropriately measures the underlying interest. However, despite the apparent qualities of the EuroSTR, progress in adopting it has been rather slow. Since the 2nd of October 2019, the EuroSTR has also determined the level of EONIA. As EONIA has been converted into a EuroSTR tracker rate, the benefits of switching to the EuroSTR may not be immediately obvious. Many market participants continue to rely on EONIA in their derivatives trading mostly out of habit or a lack of sufficient technical preparedness, while others are hesitant to use the EuroSTR when originating assets. There are two reasons why market participants should urgently work on their preparedness for an orderly transition from EONIA to the EuroSTR. First, the discontinuation of EONIA is imminent, with its last publication scheduled for the 3rd of January 2022. Before that date, all EONIA-linked contracts or instruments should either be converted into EuroSTR-linked equivalents or in corporate workable formats. I urge market participants to actively use the EuroSTR for new contracts in order to ensure a smooth transition from EONIA to the EuroSTR will be for the end of 2021. Second, a broader use of the EuroSTR will support the development of common standards and practices, for example in the origination of assets. If the proposed foreback provisions were ever activated, the market would have to rely extensively on the EuroSTR. A lack of knowledge and experience in using the rate may then hamper market functioning. BTB will continue to facilitate the replacement of EONIA in Euroarea markets by maintaining a robust and representative EuroSTR. In order to encourage a more widespread use of the EuroSTR and not just as a basis for foreback rates, BTB is considering publishing compounded EuroSTR average rates as well as a compounded index. We will provide further information on these efforts in the coming month. So let me conclude. Resilient foreback provisions for benchmark rates are essential. Forebacks act as seed belts by safeguarding continued market functioning during episodes of uncertainty that may affect the future robustness and representativeness of benchmark rates, including the right board, which in turn may lead to the benchmark seizing to exist. The imminent discontinuation of EONIA should be seized as an opportunity for market participants to fasten their seed belts by linking their contracts to an alternative benchmark rate, the EuroSTR, and thus also supporting the establishment of robust foreback provisions for your right board in the process. The EuroSTR is an ideal candidate for this transition. It can support market participants in building robust foreback procedures for potential discontinuation of your right board. Users should therefore swiftly replace EONIA and make wider use of the EuroSTR in cash and derivatives markets. As part of the ongoing efforts to establish resilient right-of-all-back provisions, I encourage all the right-of-users to review the working group's public consultation documents and to provide input by the 15th of January, 2021. Before giving the floor to Tanate Fuhtakul, the chair of the working group on EuroSTR, I would like to thank the working group members for their continued efforts during the benchmark reform deliberations and for delivering the two public consultations on your right-of-all-back. In particular, I would like to thank Mr. Fuhtakul, his predecessors, Steven van Rijsveik and Kuz Timmermans, and the entire ING team for the unwavering commitment and dedication they have demonstrated in leading the working group. I would also like to thank the ECB team that has been supporting the working group by providing the secretariat. Last but not least, we are very grateful to our colleagues at ESMA, the European Commission and the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority for their contributions to and support for the benchmark reform process. I now wish all of you an insightful and productive roundtable. Thank you very much for your kind attention.