stability board ( fsb ) recommended strengthening the existing global interest rate benchmarks, in particular the libor. it also called for the development of alternative benchmark rates. the snb is taking an active part in these reform efforts. it is represented on the relevant committees and plays a supportive role by participating in discussions with market participants, as well as with swiss and foreign authorities. reforms have been implemented at international level, particularly as far as the libor is concerned. they focus on standardising the interest rate calculation by the panel banks and making it more transaction - based. however, volume in the market segment underlying the libor remains low. at national level, the main emphasis is on the replacement of the tois fixing. 1 the tois fixing is a panel - based reference interest rate for the unsecured call money market and is used 1 tois stands for tomorrow / next overnight indexed swap. page 3 / 7 berne, 15 december 2016 andrea m. maechler news conference for interest rate derivatives. despite extensive reform efforts, no stable long - term solution has been found. underlying trading volume continues to be very low and other banks are unwilling to report interest rate conditions. for this reason, the tois fixing will be abandoned as of end - 2017. saron, the reference interest rate for secured call money, will be used in its place. saron was launched by the snb in cooperation with six in 2009. we are confident that it will establish itself as a key swiss franc reference rate. further work will be coordinated by a working group comprising financial sector representatives. key information on this topic is publicly available on the snb ’ s website. 2 2 http : / / www. snb. ch / en / ifor / finmkt / fnmkt _ benchm / id / finmkt _ reformrates page 4 / 7 berne, 15 december 2016 andrea m. maechler news conference slides page 5 / 7 berne, 15 december 2016 andrea m. maechler news conference page 6 / 7 berne, 15 december 2016 andrea m. maechler news conference page 7 / 7

reserve ’ s contingency planning for the year 2000. banks are urging their regulators and other government officials to promote public confidence by speaking clearly and forcefully about year 2000 preparedness. regulators can play a constructive role in making sure that year 2000 information disseminated to the public is factually accurate, balanced, and broadly distributed. communications are a shared responsibility. research tells us that customers want to hear directly from their bank and that the public is interested in specifics, not generalities, about our preparations. the federal reserve is expanding its program of outreach, with every reserve bank working on an aggressive program of local communications. i urge you to do the same. the public needs to know that the year 2000 is like other challenges we have met through careful preparation, risk reduction, and contingency planning to allow us to work around any problems that might occur. public obligations and patterns of behavior as we get closer to the century date change, there will no doubt be more sensational coverage in the media. it is our obligation to be smart consumers of information and to listen to responsible, not alarmist, voices. remember, as with anything that has a degree of uncertainty, there will always be those who predict the most dire outcomes. they have generally been wrong in the past, and i expect that they will be wrong again. there are likely to be some disruptions from the century date change ; nothing this large and complex can be perfectly faultless. we should remember, however, that there have been serious disruptions to service in daily life before, from storms, temporary power outages, disruptions of telephone service, etc. in general, these prove to be annoying and inconvenient, but nothing more. we also need to maintain reasonable and responsible patterns of behavior. it is possible that market participants may reduce clearing and settlement activity on december 31 and january 3. several participants, however, have indicated plans to reduce activity over a substantially longer period, up to a month. while such a reduction may appear to be prudent to an individual firm, such action by multiple participants raises the possibility of thin markets with accompanying erratic price behavior. our perspective has been to encourage market participants, especially those who hold themselves out as intermediaries, to consider carefully the overall implications, including for market liquidity, of reductions in trading volume so that risks and benefits of such initiatives are appropriately balanced. i understand that some organizations that normally make payroll or other payments using the ach are thinking