RUONIA

(Ruble Overnight Index Average) is the weighted average interest rate on interbank loans and deposits and serves as an indicator of the cost of unsecured overnight borrowing.

RUONIA rate was developed by the Bank of Russia together with the National Financial Association in 2010 so that the Central Bank and other market participants could use it as a reference indicator in the course of financial analysis. It is calculated by the Bank of Russia every business day. The rate is measured as a percentage per annum.

To calculate RUONIA rate, the reporting data of the largest Russian banks on the operations in the foreign exchange and money markets are used. Their list is compiled by the Expert Council of the National Financial Association. Such banks include Alfa Bank, VTB, Gazprombank, Sberbank, Otkritie Bank, Bank Saint Petersburg, Promsvyazbank, etc. The rate value is published on the next business day following operations conducted by banks by 3:00 p.m. Moscow time.

Nowadays, RUONIA is one of the benchmarks of the Russian money market, as pricing of a number of federal loan bonds (for example, Russia, 24020) loans, deposits and derivatives are linked to this rate. In addition, RUONIA is a risk-free interest rate and is used to analyse the situation in the money market, when the Bank of Russia estimates the amount of its deviation from the level of the key rate.

Simultaneously with the rate, the Central Bank also calculates and publishes the total volume of transactions that are included in the calculation of RUOINIA rate. The volume of operations is measured in billions of rubles.

The diagram below shows the movements of the RUONIA rate and the Key Rate values over the past five years. It should be noted that most of the time the RUONIA rate fluctuates around the values of the key rate of the Bank of Russia.