Morocco Launches MONIA: New Overnight Index to Boost Money Market Transparency

According to the clarifications of the Moroccan central bank, the adoption of MONIA as a new index aims to "strengthen the transparency of operations on the money market and its deepening through the development of a wider range of products and instruments for financial sector players," reports the daily Le Matin, which adds that this change aims to keep pace with international developments, in particular the introduction of risk-free reference rates.

The new MONIA index, calculated on the basis of repo transactions with Treasury bills as collateral, is established as the weighted average rate of overnight repo transactions (Overnight REPO Rate).

While the reference terms for the calculation of this index can be consulted on the Bank Al-Maghrib website, it should be noted, according to the same source, that the MONIA index is equal to the adjusted average, rounded to three decimal places, of the interest rates paid on eligible repo transactions. It should be emphasized that "the adjusted average is calculated as the volume-weighted average rate, based on the 70% in the center of the distribution of volumes sorted by increasing rate level," specifies Bank Al-Maghrib.