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In December 2025, the SARB announced that JIBAR would stop being published after 31 December 2026. Since September 2026, however, that date had become uncertain because of delays in the promulgation of the tough legacy legislation, as contained originally in the draft General Finance Laws Amendment Bill (Bill). This week, on 3 November 2026, the SARB confirmed that it has revised the cessation date to 31 May 2027. This supersedes the 31 December 2026 date.
The amendments to the Financial Sector Regulation Act 9 of 2017 (FSRA) which were proposed in the original Bill would give the SARB power to move ‘tough legacy’ contracts from JIBAR to ZARONIA. In September, Parliament raised concerns with the Bill, pursuant to the Constitutional Court’s ruling of 17 September 2026 in relation to the Public Procurement Act 28 of 2024, an amendment to which is contained alongside the amendment to the FSRA, in the Bill. The SARB has noted that market participants need this legislative solution to be in place well before the cessation date, and that the five-month extension is intended to allow the legislative process and the steps required to operationalise the solution to be finalised.
The SARB also shared that it intends to use Term ZARONIA, administered by FTSE Russell since its appointment by the Market Practitioners Group in April 2026, to determine Synthetic JIBAR, which will be one of the designated replacement benchmarks for tough legacy contracts. Term ZARONIA will be available for use in specific cases, which the SARB will define shortly. FTSE Term ZARONIA had its production launch on 3 November 2026 too.
The SARB has stressed that the extension does not change the direction of the reform programme and that ZARONIA remains the preferred successor rate to JIBAR. Market participants are still expected to reduce their reliance on JIBAR, maintain the momentum of their transition programmes, use the additional time to address outstanding contractual, system and operational requirements, and increase their use of ZARONIA in financial contracts.
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