The South African Reserve Bank and private-sector firms are preparing a fallback in case the law needed to move old contracts off the Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate (Jibar) is not passed by the end of the year. According to a Bloomberg report published by Moneyweb on 29 October 2026, the central bank said in an emailed response to questions that the Market Practitioners Group (MPG), which includes the Reserve Bank, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and private-sector firms, is considering options to keep the transition on track if the legislation is delayed.
The Reserve Bank gave no detail on what the fallback would involve. It said only that any changes to the transition timetable or related arrangements would be communicated to the market in a timely manner.
Jibar is still due to end on 31 December 2026
The Reserve Bank has said that Jibar will be permanently discontinued immediately after its final publication on 31 December 2026, and that all tenors will be considered non-representative from that date, as Engineering News reported when the date was announced. In its own media release on the Jibar transition, the Bank repeats that the benchmark will be discontinued on that date and that it and the MPG have identified the South African Rand Overnight Index Average (Zaronia) as the preferred replacement.
The same release set 1 May 2026 as the start of a “no new Jibar” initiative, the cut-off after which market participants should no longer issue new financial contracts referencing Jibar, except in clearly defined and limited cases. Existing Jibar exposures may be maintained, amended or hedged. Contracts already in the market are the difficult part, and that is where the legislation comes in.
The bill that moves hard-to-amend contracts
The General Finance Laws Amendment Bill was introduced in the National Assembly on 18 August 2026, according to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group’s bill page, which lists it as under consideration by the National Assembly. As described by Moonstone, its main component is a framework for replacing official benchmarks. It would let the Reserve Bank designate replacement benchmarks, decide which categories of contracts they apply to, set effective dates and determine adjustment spreads.
National Treasury told Parliament that legislation was necessary because existing contracts cannot be amended unilaterally and subordinate legislation had proved inadequate to change their legal consequences. Treasury also said the amendments are needed for the Reserve Bank’s planned phase-out of the prime lending rate, which is widely used as a reference for mortgages, consumer credit and some commercial credit.
Why the bill stalled in September
The Bill had a second component, an amendment to the Public Procurement Act. The Constitutional Court declared that Act unconstitutional and invalid on 17 September 2026, finding that Parliament had not met its obligation to facilitate adequate public participation. On 29 September the Standing Committee on Finance decided not to proceed with the Bill in its current form while it considered the implications.
On 13 October, legal teams from Parliament, Treasury and the Reserve Bank advised that the committee should drop the procurement clause and continue with the amendments to the Financial Sector Regulation Act, Moonstone reported. Committee chairperson Joseph Maswanganyi said this was “guidance and leadership, not a decision”. The committee had not adopted the advice at that point, and it had also raised questions about public participation if the Bill is changed.
A draft programme reported by Moonstone has Treasury responding to written submissions on 17 November and clause-by-clause deliberations on 25 November, with finalisation envisaged before the end of 2026. Those dates were described as provisional. Finishing in committee would also not end the process, because both Houses must pass the Bill before it goes to the President for assent.
On 30 September, Maswanganyi told Bloomberg: “I am confident that parliament will pass the General Finance Laws Amendment Bill before it rises in December.” We covered that earlier in Lawmakers aim to pass Zaronia bill before December end.
What a delay would mean for borrowers and lenders
Treasury’s chief director for financial markets and stability, Vukile Davidson, told the committee that if the Bill is not enacted by the cessation date, the transition of Jibar-referencing contracts could be delayed. He also said market participants could face legal risk because the proposed safe-harbour provisions would not be in place. That is the gap the backup plan is meant to cover.
For companies with floating-rate loans, bonds or derivatives that reference Jibar, the practical message from the Reserve Bank is to keep moving. It said: “Any delay in the legislative process would not change the direction of the transition, and market participants should continue to adopt Zaronia and reduce their Jibar-related exposures.” The central bank also stressed that Zaronia remains the preferred successor rate.
Treasury teams that have not yet mapped their Jibar-linked contracts have the most to do. Our earlier pieces on how treasury teams face the move from Jibar to Zaronia and on how corporates must overhaul debt administration set out the practical steps. More coverage sits in Regulatory & Policy.
Term Zaronia and the test rate
As part of the switch, the MPG selected FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group, to administer Term Zaronia, a forward-looking term rate based on ZARONIA-linked derivatives. The Reserve Bank’s release says the MPG’s final endorsement of the term rate remains subject to enough liquidity developing in the Zaronia derivatives markets. According to the Bloomberg report, FTSE Russell is publishing a test version of Term Zaronia on its website so that banks and other participants can follow it as trading in linked products develops. Moneyweb describes the term rate as designed to give borrowers and lenders greater certainty about future interest payments.
What is still unknown
The Reserve Bank has not said what the backup plan contains, who would be bound by it, or whether it could replace the statutory safe harbour that the Bill would create. It has not said whether the 31 December discontinuation date could move. As of the source date of 29 October 2026, the committee had yet to decide how to amend the Bill, and neither House had voted on it. Readers with Jibar-linked contracts should check the Reserve Bank and MPG announcements for the latest position and take advice on their own agreements, because the outcome for each contract depends on its wording.
Source: Bloomberg report published by Moneyweb on 29 October 2026, with the Reserve Bank’s emailed response.
