JIBAR ends 31 Dec 2026: what ZARONIA means for your bond

JIBAR ends on 31 December 2026 — here's what the switch to ZARONIA means for your bond

bond.co.za explains: JIBAR, the interbank rate behind some SA loans, is discontinued after 31 December 2026 and replaced by ZARONIA, an overnight rate built from real bank transactions. Home loans are priced off prime, not JIBAR — so your bond repayment does not change. The bigger shift to watch is the SARB's separate review of prime itself.

By bond.co.za Editorial Team, Home loan content editor · Reviewed by Registered Mortgage Originator · Published 2026-09-11 · Last verified 2026-09-12

JIBARZARONIArepo rateprime ratebenchmark reform

Minimal illustration of an ordinary South African home beneath two chart lines, one fading out and one continuing forward — a benchmark changing hands

Key takeaways

01JIBAR — the Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate — will be discontinued after its final publication on 31 December 2026, the SARB confirmed on 3 December 2025. New contracts have been discouraged from referencing JIBAR since March 2026.

02Its designated successor is ZARONIA (the South African Rand Overnight Index Average): a near-risk-free rate calculated from actual overnight lending between banks, published every business day at 10:00 — not from panel-bank estimates the way JIBAR is.

03Your home loan is priced off prime, not JIBAR — prime is 10.50% with the repo rate at 7.00% as at the July 2026 MPC (per SARB, last updated 2026-09-12) — so the benchmark switch does not change your bond repayment.

04The reform that could eventually touch your bond is separate: the SARB’s February 2026 consultation on discontinuing the prime rate itself, with any transition expected no earlier than 2027.

One of the quietest big changes in South African finance has a hard deadline: after 31 December 2026, JIBAR will no longer be published. The Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate has underpinned lending contracts for decades. Its replacement, ZARONIA, is already live and published every business day. Here is what is actually changing, when — and why your bond repayment is not part of it.

What exactly is JIBAR, and why is it ending?

JIBAR is an interbank rate: a panel of banks submit the rates at which they estimate they could borrow, and an average is published for three-month and other maturities. Estimates, not recorded transactions, are its structural weakness — the same weakness that killed LIBOR internationally. On 3 December 2025 the South African Reserve Bank confirmed that JIBAR will be permanently discontinued after its final publication on 31 December 2026, and regulators pushed a "no new JIBAR" rule from March 2026 so that new contracts stop referencing it ahead of the cut-off.

What is ZARONIA, in plain terms?

ZARONIA — the South African Rand Overnight Index Average — is the rate at which rand-denominated overnight wholesale funds are actually obtained by commercial banks. Per the SARB's methodology, it is a trimmed, volume-weighted mean of interest rates paid on eligible unsecured overnight deposits: real transactions, with outliers stripped out. The SARB began publishing it on 2 November 2022, an observation period ran to 3 November 2023, and the Market Practitioners Group has designated ZARONIA as JIBAR's successor rate. It is published every South African business day at 10:00.

What is the difference between JIBAR and ZARONIA?

Feature	JIBAR	ZARONIA
Built from	Panel-bank estimates	Actual overnight transactions
Credit risk in the rate	Yes — includes a bank-risk premium	Near risk-free
Term structure	Forward-looking (e.g. 3-month)	Backward-looking overnight average
Status	Final publication 31 December 2026	Published daily at 10:00 since November 2022

When does the switch happen?

2 November 2022 — the SARB begins publishing ZARONIA so markets can observe it (SARB).
3 November 2023 — the observation period ends; ZARONIA becomes usable in financial contracts (SARB).
3 December 2025 — the SARB confirms JIBAR ends after its final publication on 31 December 2026 (Afriwise).
March 2026 — the "no new JIBAR" push takes effect for new contracts (CMS Law-Now).
2026 — FTSE Russell, appointed by the Market Practitioners Group, works toward a forward-looking FTSE Term ZARONIA rate; a prototype is in user testing and the launch is subject to market liquidity (FTSE Russell, 12 August 2026).
31 December 2026 — JIBAR's final publication; ZARONIA remains as the surviving benchmark.

So what does this mean for your bond?

Honestly: nothing to your monthly repayment. South African home loans are priced at — or relative to — the prime lending rate, which is a fixed 3.5 percentage points above the repo rate. Prime is 10.50% with the repo rate at 7.00% following the May 2026 hike and the July hold, per the SARB (figures last updated 2026-09-12). JIBAR lives in wholesale and corporate lending, not in your bond quote. If you want to see how today's prime actually prices your loan, the bond repayment calculator and our prime rate tracker show the arithmetic with dated assumptions.

The reform that could eventually reach your bond is a separate one. On 16 February 2026 the SARB published a consultation paper proposing to discontinue the prime rate itself and price lending directly off the repo rate — the same logic as the JIBAR change: replace a convention with the policy benchmark itself. More than 12 million contracts worth over R3.2 trillion reference prime, and the SARB has said existing borrowers would see no change to repayments — a relabelling, not a repricing. We covered that story in our prime-rate explainer; any transition is expected no earlier than 2027, after the JIBAR-to-ZARONIA work completes.

What to watch next

Whether FTSE Term ZARONIA — the forward-looking term rate being built for the transition — launches on schedule in 2026; its prototype is in user testing now and the launch is subject to market liquidity (FTSE Russell, August 2026).
The MPC statement on 23 September 2026 — the repo decision that actually moves your instalment.
The SARB’s next steps on its prime-rate consultation, including the promised “safe harbour” wording for existing prime-linked contracts.

Figures as at 12 September 2026. Rate figures (repo 7.00%, prime 10.50%) per the SARB July 2026 MPC statement, maintained in the bond.co.za rates data (last updated 2026-09-12) and verified by Rates & Lender Data. Benchmark dates per SARB, Afriwise, CMS Law-Now and FTSE Russell publications listed in Sources.

Frequently asked questions

Will my bond repayment change when JIBAR ends?

No. South African home loans are priced at, or relative to, the prime lending rate — not JIBAR. Prime is 10.50% after the May 2026 hike, held at the July 2026 MPC (per SARB). JIBAR underpins other contracts, mostly in wholesale and corporate lending. The benchmark swap changes how institutions price those deals; it does not touch your monthly instalment.

Is ZARONIA the same as the prime rate?

No — they sit at different levels of the system. ZARONIA is an overnight wholesale benchmark used between financial institutions. Prime is the retail benchmark banks use to price your bond, conventionally repo plus 3.5 percentage points — 10.50% against a 7.00% repo rate as at the July 2026 MPC (per SARB). The SARB is, however, consulting on replacing prime with the repo rate as the retail reference — a separate change with its own timeline.

When is ZARONIA effective?

ZARONIA has been published since 2 November 2022 and usable in contracts since its observation period ended on 3 November 2023, per the SARB. What changes on 31 December 2026 is that JIBAR stops being published — from that date, ZARONIA is the surviving benchmark for contracts that previously referenced JIBAR.