...While Barclays comes up with Ebu
As if just to prove that it too can come up with new products with a silly name, Barclays launched the Ebu this week. I spent hours – okay, seconds – searching the internet to see what an Ebu was, and in reality it’s nothing more than an abbreviation for European Borrowing Unit.
Barclays says that this is the first synthetic currency with a zero interest rate, which makes it attractive, “for multiple funding uses for a range of clients, particularly those considering a reduction in cost of funding through controlled FX exposure.” Daily fixes will be provided on Bloomberg, based on Central Bank fixings of the G10 currencies that make up the Ebu. Barclays says the Ebu is not designed for speculative or short-term purposes, but for medium- to long-term financing solutions.
I teased a bank spokesperson: “Just imagine if you could have used it in August – all that bad press about funding would have been avoided!”