European Central Bank Interest Rates

From:				Monetary Policy Implementation
To:

Notes:
( 1 ) From 1 January 1999 to 9 March 2004, the date refers to the deposit and marginal lending facilities. For main refinancing operations, changes in the rate are effective from the first operation following the date indicated. The change on 18 September 2001 was effective on that same day. From 10 March 2004 onwards, the date refers to the deposit and marginal lending facilities and to the main refinancing operations (as a rule changes are effective from the first main refinancing operation following the Governing Council decision).
( 2 ) On 22 December 1998 the ECB announced that, as an exceptional measure between 4 and 21 January 1999, a narrow corridor of 50 basis points would be applied between the interest rates for the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility, aimed at facilitating the transition to the new regime by market participants, following the introduction of the euro.
( 3 ) On 8 June 2000 the ECB announced that, starting from the operation to be settled on 28 June 2000, the main refinancing operations of the Eurosystem would be conducted as variable rate tenders. From that day to 14 October 2008 the main refinancing operations rate refers to the minimum interest rate at which counterparties may place their bids. Before 28 June 2000 the main refinancing operations were conducted as fixed rate tenders.
(4) On 8 October 2008 the ECB decided that, starting from the operation to be settled on 15 October 2008, the main refinancing operations would be carried out through a fixed rate tender procedure with full allotment at the interest rate on the main refinancing operations, i.e. 3.75% at that time.
 

Glossary:
Variable rate tender: a tender procedure whereby the counterparties bid both the amount of money they want to transact with the central bank and the interest rate at which they want to enter into the transaction.
Fixed rate tender: a tender procedure where the interest rate is specified in advance by the central bank and participating counterparties bid the amount of money they want to transact at the fixed interest rate.
Fixed rate tender procedure with full allotment: a tender procedure where the interest rate is specified in advance by the central bank, which also accepts in full all submitted bids of money counterparties want to transact.