[author: Sejal Patel]

On March 15, 2018, the European Central Bank (“ECB“) published its second consultation paper on a new euro unsecured overnight interest rate, available here.

The ECB announced in September 2017 that it intended to start providing a euro unsecured overnight interest rate based on data already available to the Eurosystem (that is, the rate will be calculated entirely on transactions in euro that are reported by banks in the ECB’s money market statistical reporting (“MMSR“)). The ECB aims to produce the new rate before 2020 and plans for it to be consistent with the principles on financial benchmarks developed by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (“IOSCO“). The interest rate will complement existing benchmark rates produced by the private sector and will serve as a backstop reference rate.