MIBOR : ECONOMY

NEWS : RBI released Report of the Committee on MIBOR Benchmark.

 

WHAT’S IN THE NEWS ?

The Reserve Bank of India today placed on its website the Report of the Committee on MIBOR Benchmark (Chairperson: Shri R. Subramanian). The Committee was set up to review the Rupee interest rate benchmarks in the country, especially the usage of Mumbai Interbank Outright Rate (MIBOR) and to examine the need for transition to new benchmarks.

 

Mumbai Interbank Offer Rate (MIBOR) Overview:

  • Purpose: Benchmark interest rate for banks borrowing unsecured funds in the Indian interbank market.
  • Introduced in: 1998 by the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
  • Published by: Financial Benchmarks India Pvt. Ltd. (FBIL), daily.
  • Current Methodology: Based on trades executed in the first hour of trading on the Negotiated Dealing System (NDS-Call).

 

Call Money Market:

  • Definition: Financial institutions and banks lending and borrowing funds for short-term needs.

 

Issues with Current MIBOR:

  • Narrow Volume: Based on only 1% of the daily money market volume.
  • Volatility: Low trading volumes make MIBOR prone to volatility.

 

RBI Committee Recommendations:

  • Change in Computation Methodology: Include transactions from the first 3 hours to make MIBOR more reliable.
  • New Benchmark: Based on secured money market transactions (basket repo and TREP) in the first three hours.
  • TREP: A type of repo contract where a third party acts as an intermediary between two parties.

 

Source : https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=58800#:~:text=The%20Reserve%20Bank%20of%20India%20today%20placed%20on,examine%20the%20need%20for%20transition%20to%20new%20benchmarks.