Interbank lending market

The interbank lending market is a market in which banks extend loans to one another for a specified term. Most interbank loans are for maturities of one week or less, the majority being overnight. Such loans are made at the interbank rate (also called the overnight rate if the term of the loan is overnight). Low transaction volume in this market was a major contributing factor to the financial crisis of 2007.

Banks are required to hold an adequate amount of liquid assets, such as cash, to manage any potential bank runs by clients. If a bank cannot meet these liquidity requirements, it will need to borrow money in the interbank market to cover the shortfall. Some banks, on the other hand, have excess liquid assets above and beyond the liquidity requirements. These banks will lend money in the interbank market, receiving interest on the assets.

The interbank rate is the rate of interest charged on short-term loans between banks. Banks borrow and lend money in the interbank lending market in order to manage liquidity and satisfy regulations such as reserve requirements. The interest rate charged depends on the availability of money in the market, on prevailing rates and on the specific terms of the contract, such as term length. There is a wide range of published interbank rates, including the federal funds rate (USA), the LIBOR (UK) and the Euribor (Eurozone).

The interbank lending market refers to the subset of bank-to-bank transactions that take place in the money market.

The money market is a subsection of the financial market in which funds are lent and borrowed for periods of one year or less. Funds are transferred through the purchase and sale of money market instruments—highly liquid short-term debt securities. These instruments are considered cash equivalents since they can be sold in the market easily and at low cost. They are commonly issued in units of at least one million and tend to have maturities of three months or less. Since active secondary markets exist for almost all money market instruments, investors can sell their holdings prior to maturity. The money market is an over-the-counter (OTC) market.

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