By Mark Young, Maureen Donley, Daniel O'Connell and Shekida Smith ( September 14, 2017, 12:47 PM EDT) -- Plans to end the long reign of the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, as one of the world's most often-used interest rate benchmarks have recently been confirmed by several top financial regulators. On July 27, 2017, Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, announced that Libor is to be transitioned to alternative rates during the next four years,[1] marking a sharp departure from the FCA's prior recommendation to reform the benchmark.[2] Less than a week later, J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Jerome Powell, a governor of the Federal Reserve, similarly voiced support for phasing out Libor.[3] These endorsements for gradually discontinuing Libor push plans for a phaseout in a more concrete direction, triggering significant regulatory and legal implementation questions for derivatives markets, market regulators and counterparties....