[CraigJPerry]

We’re not producing cola anymore, everyone should use water instead.

SONIA is just one rate - last nights GBP overnight rate. LIBOR benchmark currencies have tenors, the future borrowing rates at different maturities.

They’re different things - so different that a “synthetic LIBOR” rate is now produced in order to help transition instruments that can’t rely only on the historical overnight rate like SONIA.

It’s true that LIBOR is being replaced (although a level 1 submission to ICE LIBOR was already based on value weighted averages from eligible transactions - it’s just that a level 3 expert judgement could override it) - but it’s not being replaced by something comparable. It’s being Replaced by an entirely different benchmark, it’s impossible to change some contracts to use the new benchmark because the new benchmark measures something different and lacks sufficient information to do everything that libor did.

Source: i inherited ownership of the system used to submit libor at one of the libor panel banks when i previously worked there.