Dr. E. Spörndli, head of Financial Market Operations at the Swiss National Bank, said: "The overnight repo business via the Eurex Repo electronic trading platform will take the place of the traditional Lombard facility for the banks in the future." The repo business in Swiss francs has become increasingly important in recent years, Spörndli said. "The repo system has been expanded in several steps and has proved to be secure and efficient. The Eurex Repo trading platform is used for monetary-policy transactions as well as the auctions for bonds and registered money-market claims of the Swiss confederation."
The Swiss National Bank also uses repo transactions to make intraday liquidity available to the banks. Repo transactions are also being used to an increasing degree to balance out the liquidity in Swiss francs between the banks. The SNB's Lombard facility has an important steering function: A bank that has a Lombard credit limit can make use of this facility on short notice to bridge an unexpected liquidity squeeze. In the future, use of the Lombard facility will be made by means of the repo transaction, which enables better management of the securities.
Further information from the Gruppe Deutsche Boerse is available under http://www.media-relations.deutsche-boerse.com.
