Euribor rates hit record low on liquidity glut

FRANKFURT, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Key Euribor bank-to-bank lending rate hit fresh record lows on Monday, pushed down by large amounts of excess liquidity sloshing around in the money markets.

The three-month Euribor rate

, traditionally the main gauge of unsecured bank-to-bank lending, fell to 0.214 percent from 0.215 percent.

Shorter term one-week rates

remained at 0.081 percent while overnight Eonia rates dipped to 0.093 percent from 0.095 percent.

Bank-to-bank lending rates have been in virtual freefall since November last year when news broke that the ECB was going to flood the banking system with ultra-cheap, three-year cash.

The bank's decision in July to stop paying interest on overnight deposits has allowed the drop to continue by removing the 0.25 percent floor for the money market.

Dollar-priced bank-to-bank Euribor lending rates

also inched down, with three-month rates falling to 0.60923 percent from 0.61750 percent.

The amount of excess cash in the euro zone banking system remains extremely high at 711 billion euros according to Reuters calculations

.

With it set to remain high for the foreseeable future, money market experts are instead focused on whether the ECB could copy Denmark's example and start charging banks to deposit cash overnight with it.

However, after initial interest in the idea, some policymakers have expressed reservations about it.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For a package of graphics on the ECB, click on:

For graphic of euro zone liquidity levels click:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Euribor rates are fixed daily by the Banking Federation of the European Union (FBE) shortly after 0900 GMT.

* For a table of the latest Euribor fixings for terms of one week to one year, double click on

* For a table of the previous day's fixings of EONIA swap rates, which show market expectations for future overnight lending rates, double click on

* For graphs of historic Euribor and EONIA swap rates, right click on the links in angle brackets below, and select 'Related Graph' 1 week 2 week 3 week 1 month 2 month 3 month 4 month 5 month 6 month 7 month 8 month 9 month 10 month 11 month 1 year

(Reporting by Frankfurt newsroom)

(([e-mail])([phone]))

Keywords: MARKETS EURIBOR/