Luxembourg, 02/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) has adopted a Short-Term European Paper (STEP) Market Convention along with the New Global Note (NGN) format for its issues of euro-commercial paper.
This makes the EIB the first issuer to offer euro-commercial paper in both STEP and NGN formats. It is also the first issuer to raise short-term debt in NGN format, having been the first to raise long-term debt using NGN format in June 2006. The move is intended to ensure that short-term debt issued by EIB in the euromarket will be in a format eligible for collateral purposes in the market operations of eurozone central banks, once the STEP market is accepted by the European Central Bank (ECB) as a non-regulated market for collateral purposes in eurosystem credit operations. The NGN format also supports collateral eligibility. The underlying objectives of STEP and the NGN format include supporting enhanced market efficiency and liquidity. (ol)