When law firm Linklaters decided to organize a seminar about theforthcoming demise of LIBOR, it planned to holdthe event in its London auditorium, which seats about a hundredpeople. After more than 500 attendees signed up, it was forced tomove to a larger venue.

Thursday's packed attendance at the Honourable Artillery Company'sheadquarters strikes me as testament to how corporatetreasurers, bankers, accountants, and consultants are belatedlyrealizing the scale of the task finance faces in replacing what was dubbed—and still arguablyis—the world's most important interest rate. But the awakening maystill have come too late to avoid a chaotic and expensivedenouement to the benchmark.

The London interbank offered rates (LIBOR) are embeddedthroughout the DNA of finance. Untangling them, after the FinancialConduct Authority's (FCA's) announcement two years ago that they'llbe phased out by the end of 2021, is proving difficult through acombination of apathy, complexity, and a lingering hope that LIBORwill somehow limp on in some form or other.