SSA market pressures ECB on Ester publication

MIN CHIU/cmjjack2016 - stock.adobe.com

Public sector bond market participants are growing increasingly frustrated at the pace of the implementation of Ester, the alternative euro risk-free rate to replace Euribor. Borrowers are unable to plan for, let alone issue, a bond linked to the benchmark without the rate being published by the European Central Bank. That leaves the euro far behind other markets where Libor is being replaced, writes Burhan Khadbai.