At the G20’s request, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) started work on an international interest rate benchmark reform in 2014, aimed at making these indices more transparent, representative and reliable.
Working groups were set up for Europe to develop new representative interest rate benchmarks, based on real transactions, known as risk-free rates (RFR). This initiative included a working group made up of public and private financial industry stakeholders, with the ECB providing the secretariat. This group was tasked with issuing recommendations on benchmarks with the aim of complying with political and regulatory requirements. Official information on this initiative is available on the ECB website at the following address: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/initiatives/interest_rate_benchmarks/html/index.en.html
EONIA-€STR
Certain aspects will not change as of October 2, 2019
EONIA
Daily EONIA rates will continue to be officially published by the European Money Markets Institute (EMMI) until end-2021.
New contracts/loans/financing transactions with an EONIA component can still be used, although the reform encourages all financial stakeholders to exit EONIA and adopt the €STR by end-2021.
Existing contracts/loans/financing transactions with an EONIA component will remain.
Changes as of October 2, 2019
EONIA
The EMMI, which provides the index, will change the calculation methodology for the overnight EONIA, which will be directly based on the €STR.
EONIA will be calculated as the €STR+spread: the ECB has set the spread at 8.5bps.
EONIA for any given day will be published the following day at 9.15am CET after publication of the €STR.
EONIA will not be published on October 1, 2019, but rather on October 2, 2019.
The EMMI will publish EONIA until January 3, 2022. Any contracts/loans/financing maturing at a date beyond this deadline will have to be reviewed before then.
€STR (Euro Short-Term Rate)
The ECB will officially publish this benchmark from October 2 onwards.
The €STR for any given day will be published on the following day. So the €STR for October 1, 2019 will be published on October 2, 2019 by 8am CET at the latest.
Teams at Natixis are available to support clients and provide them with solutions to manage the coexistence of these two benchmarks and manage their operations that were initially indexed to EONIA.
Official information on these benchmarks is available at the following addresses:
- €STR : https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/initiatives/interest_rate_benchmarks/euro_short-term_rate/html/index.en.html
- EONIA : https://www.emmi-benchmarks.eu/euribor-eonia-org/about-eonia.html
EURIBOR
In December 2018, a reform was initiated of the EURIBOR, also managed by the EMMI, with the disappearance of the 2-week, 2-month and 9-month tenors, as well as the panel-based contribution system.The publication of the EURIBOR remains unchanged and contracts/loans/financing using the index remain.
Official information on the EURIBOR reform is available at the following address: https://www.emmi-benchmarks.eu/euribor-org/euribor-reform.html
Contact: bal-ibortransition@natixis.com
