UAE central bank plans reforms to EIBOR quotes: sources

[ABU DHABI] The United Arab Emirates central bank plans to change the way in which banks quote indicative money market rates to make them more uniform and transparent, banking sources said.

A panel of 11 banks submits daily quotes from which Emirates interbank offered rates (EIBOR) are calculated. The rates, which range from overnight to one year, are used to price financial instruments in the Gulf's top banking centre, but they are often different from rates at which banks actually lend.

Commercial bankers, speaking on condition of anonymity because of business sensitivities, said the central bank was concerned that there was too much variation between banks' EIBOR quotes on any given day, because the banks were not following a standard procedure to decide the quotes.

REUTERS