States, Cities Get Accounting Relief in Moving Away From Libor

States, cities, and counties detangling lease and derivative contracts tied to the soon-to-be-extinct London Interbank Offered Rate got relief Thursday on how to account for these changes.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board published a package of simplifications designed to make it easier to move away from interbank offered rates like Libor to new benchmark interest rates like the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and the Effective Federal Funds Rate. Regulators plan to phase out Libor by the end of 2021, a response to a vast rate-rigging scandal that came to light in 2012.

Statement No. 93, Replacement of Interbank ...