Panel Bank

Euribor, the Euro Interbank Offer Rate, is the average interest rate of a bunch of eurozone banks. The Euribor reference rate is made up of interest rates from short-term, uncollateralized, inter-bank loans. Eurozone banks do each other a solid, lending money to each other as needed to keep liquidity up.

Any bank that contributes to the Euribor reference rates (there are eight of them, at different maturities) is known as a panel bank. Each panel bank reports daily quotes that go into calculating the daily Euribor rates.

There are 20 panel banks, all big banks doing big business. There’s a handful of panel banks in France, Italy, and Spain, with the rest sprinkled amongst Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and of course, dark, cloudy Britain, where the sun never shines and heat waves take the country hostage once per year.