Historical Libor Interest Rates

From LoveToKnow Mortgage

Since there are several sources for historical Libor interest rates it can be easy to get confused. Be sure you understand the actual date of the Libor rate as well as the maturity term of the loan to which the rate applies.

Historical rates are used to determine the Libor index

Date of Rate versus Date of Publication

The Libor interest rates are published every London business day at 11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time by the British Bankers Association (BBA). This daily publication by the BBA establishes the date of the various Libor rates.

As soon as the Libor rates are published by the BBA on their website, several international data sources immediately distribute the rates internationally. These data sources include:

MoneylineTelerate, which is owned by Reuters
Bloomberg

The Libor rates received from the data sources are published by financial information providers including newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, as well as financial websites such as moneyline.com, bloomberg.com and mortgage-x.com.

Typically these information providers publish the Libor rate the day after the rate is determined. This means that the Libor rate is always at least one business day old when first made available in any source except the BBA website.

Finding Historical Libor Interest Rates

An individual with an adjustable rate mortgage might be interested in what the Libor interest rate was on a specific day in order to determine if their interest rate is going to rise, fall or stay the same. This curiosity about the Libor interest rate is due to the way the Libor rate is used to determine the interest rate of an adjustable rate mortgage loan.

The terms of many adjustable rate mortgage loans are based on a combination of a specific Libor interest rate (such as the 6-month Libor rate) plus a specific percentage which is called the "margin." The terms of the mortgage loan will usually specify that interest rate changes will be based on a specific base (such as the 6-month Libor interest rate) on a specific date (such as the last day of a specific month). When a lendor publishes a rate change notice to a mortgage holder, the letter will specify the Libor rate and margin percentage used to determine the old and new interest rates.

The BBA website is the best source for historical Libor interest rates. It shows both the current and historical rates on a variety of loan maturities. Rates are available for all business days since the January 1986 launch of the BBA Libor interest rates. Rates are available for the following maturities:

Overnight
1 week
2 weeks
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months
5 months
6 months
7 months
8 months
9 months
10 months
11 months
12 months

Historical Libor rates are also available in previous editions of daily financial publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. The rate data can be retrieved from several financial data providers (such as SunGard) through websites such as Lexis and other Internet data providers.

The historical rate data is also published in several formats by the International Money Fund (IMF) including CD-ROM and printed formats such as: