Instruments over a year are often traded with a yield to maturity of exact count days. In contrast, continental Europe and the United States, money market instruments are generally used for less than one year in addition to providing the ability to send money to Jamaica.
There are very specific agreements concerning the considered working days, and how accidents affect the timing , instrument by instrument, the standard duration (a week or a month) that are traded on the money market
A central bank uses the money market to manage daily liquidity of the banking system, and by osmosis, the economy in general (to fight inflation or deflation, for example, and in case of financial crisis, provide sufficient liquidity to prevent a shutdown of the financial system. Control the short term interest rate, in the same optical response of the economy.
Place reserves of foreign central banks. In the late 1990s, they became huge, mainly in Asia, and an important part of the activity of the U.S. and European central banks in the markets is conducted on behalf of Asian central banks. In addition, banks in the euro area must hold minimum reserves with the ECB. To secure the payment of loans or borrowings interbank euro, the European System of Central Banks established the Target system .
This is due to the fact that many money market accounts are offered solely as an online account, resulting in lower administrative costs, which can then be passed on in the form of higher interest rates to customers.
Secondly, aggressive marketing of many financial institutions who try to (at least temporarily) favorable overnight rates to attract new customers. Sometimes, a savings account can be opened only with a checking account or deposit. Some use the funds to send money to Jamaica.
Banks guarantee new customers a fixed interest rate for a certain period of time (usually three to twelve months). After the guarantee commitment, the balance will bear interest at the then rate of interest.
With a roughly equivalent volume, the money market in the euro area and the United States are by far the busiest and largest in the world. On some instruments, such as the repo, they together represent up to 90% of global transactions.
Derivatives are generally liquid instruments that are equivalent to cash, they allow players to adjust their exposure to interest rate without having to leave their assets or balance without increasing counterparty risk. Forward exchange contracts, which corresponds to a loan in a virtual currency and virtual loan in another currency and the FRA, which stands for Forward Rate Agreement, OTC contract for setting an interbank rate in the future, such as a 3-month rate in two months.