LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - A revamped version of the Euribor
interest rate benchmark has been given regulatory approval,
helping the euro area catch up with reforms aimed at avoiding a
repeat of the global rate-rigging scandals.
The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) of
Belgium has authorised Brussels-based European Money Market
Institute (EMMI) as the administrator of Euribor under EU
Benchmark Regulation (BMR).
"Euribor is now considered BMR-compliant and was added to
the ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) benchmark
register," ESMA said in a statement on its website.
"This means that European Union (EU) supervised entities
will be able to use Euribor also after the end of the applicable
BMR transitional period," it added, saying too that EMMI intends
to apply for authorisation of the equivalent overnight lending
rate, EONIA, in September.
Euribor and Eonia are two of the main euro-denominated
measures of money market lending rates and are widely used as a
reference for pricing home loans, credit cards and other
products.
Banks in Europe and the United States were fined billions of
dollars over the last decade for trying to rig Euribor and its
larger cousin, the London Interbank Offered Rate or Libor.