RIC codes for market interest rates

What is the definition of day-to-day money rate?

Day-to-Day money rate or the overnight rate, is a standardised and neutral interest rate fixing for the individual currency type. The rate is quoted daily at fixed times in the market for the currency in question.

If the bank uses a different source, this will represent a rate that is published, and which is generally used in the market for the currency type in question. For currencies where there is no official fixing or well-developed market for interest rates, the bank is obliged to set the rate itself.

See summary on this page, or here.

What is public fixing?

Every banking day, in most countries with a well-developed interest rate market, a selected panel of banks quote interest rates for different time periods. These interest rates are called a “Day-to-day money rate” or “overnight rate”. Based on the interest rates provided by the banks, the panel calculates an interest rate for each of the different time periods, which then becomes the average interbank interest rate in the currency in question. For example, for the USD, the fixed-income interest rates are called EFFR.

Here is an overview of day-to-day money rates in different currencies/countries.

How often are day-to-day money rates changed?

Day-to-Day money rates, or overnight rates, are changed daily, provided it is a banking day for the currency in question.

All currencies can be connected to the Day-to-Day money rate in principle, but not all are connected to a public fixing on a daily basis in the individual foreign exchange markets.

See the overview of day-to-day money rates here

What do SPREAD, BID and ASK mean in relation to interest rates?

BID is the rate the bank is willing to pay for a deposit for a given time period. ASK is the rate at which the bank is willing to lend money/make a deposit in another bank for a given time period. The difference between BID and ASK for the same time period is called the SPREAD.

What is Thomson Reuters?

Thomson Reuters is an international news agency. Currently almost all news organisations subscribe to services that provide financial information. Reuters Kobra 3000 is used to find news updates, continuously updated interest rates and foreign exchange rates and to obtain historical information from public financial information.

What is a RIC code?

RIC is an abbreviation for “Reuters Instrumental Code”. A RIC code is a unique code that Reuters uses to identify market data. The code can be used by anyone who subscribes to news from Reuters to find the latest updated figures and historical information. For example, the RIC for 3M NIBOR is OINOK3MD=

What financial impact come into effect if you switched sources of overnight rates?

Changing the source and times/dates for fixing has no financial impact long term, not for the bank nor the customer.

What benefits does the customer get from the reference rate?

The reference rate is set neutrally (DNB has no effect on it). The customers may look up this interest rate daily, as well as extract lists of historical interest rates. The reference rate will be more stable over time.

Where is the basis for the overnight rate found?

The basis is available on public websites in the different countries, normally on the national central banks’ websites. Here are a few examples:

USD: https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/openmarket.htm

EUR: http://www.euribor-rates.eu/

SEK: http://www.riksbank.se/sv/Rantor-och-valutakurser/Sok-rantor-och-valutakurser/

GBP/ Sonia Interest Rate Benchmark SONIA is administered by the Bank of England and is published at 09:00 the following working day in London.

JPY Bank of Japan calculates and publishes TONAR. Click here for Bank of Japan: TONAR (English)

CHF: Swiss Average Rate Overnight (SARON) is an average of overnight rates that refer to Swiss francs CHF. Click here.

NZD: RBNZ OCR - Reserve Bank of New Zealand Official Cash Rate. RBNZ OCR - observations