therefore needed. 4 / 10 bis central bankers'speeches in september 2017, the ecb, the belgian financial services and markets authority ( as lead supervisor of both eonia and euribor ), the european securities and markets authority and the european commission launched a new private sector working group. the group was tasked with the identification and adoption of risk - free rates to serve as a basis for an alternative to the current benchmarks. 5 the progress made in a very short period of time has been impressive. the working group developed key criteria, consistent with the iosco principles for financial benchmarks and the requirements of the eu benchmarks regulation, to shortlist potential candidates for an alternative euro risk - free rate. the main criteria included the need for broad - based and reliable market data, an easily understandable concept that the index seeks to measure, and a trustworthy administrator. the working group shortlisted three candidates : ( i ) the euro short - term rate, ester, to be produced by the ecb, reflecting euro area banks ’ borrowing costs in the wholesale unsecured overnight market ; ( ii ) gc pooling deferred, a one - day secured, centrally cleared, general collateral repo rate produced by stoxx ; and ( iii ) the repofunds rate, a one - day repo rate secured by general and specific collateral and centrally cleared, produced by nex data services limited. only two weeks ago, on 13 september, the working group recommended ester as the euro risk - free rate to replace eonia. a public consultation was launched ahead of the vote, the outcome of which provided valuable input for decision - making. 88 % of responses viewed ester as the most appropriate future euro risk - free rate. overall, the ecb welcomes the recommendation of the working group. ester is a reliable and robust rate and it reflects financing conditions in money markets better than secured rates, which could be influenced by regulatory and collateral factors unrelated to bank borrowing. while ester represents an alternative benchmark for the short - term segment of the money market, progress towards the development of alternatives for longer tenors is yet to be seen. although longer - tenor instruments are not turned over as frequently as overnight ones, they are economically relevant as they represent a significant share of outstanding amounts. you can see this on my next slide. 5 / 10 bis central bankers'speeches for euribor, work is currently ongoing under the auspices of the european money markets institute

( emmi ) which will hopefully result in a new, compliant benchmark, based on a hybrid methodology using actual transactions whenever available, and relying on other related market prices when required. in other words, current proposed solutions are likely to continue to require expert judgement in order to sustain daily benchmark publications on longer tenors. i draw two implications from this. first, under this approach the ecb would not be well placed to produce term rates ( as opposed to overnight rates ), as the central bank may not have the same overview of the prevailing market conditions and funding costs as banks. moreover, expert judgement provided by the central bank may create, or be perceived as creating, a conflict of interest. and second, even if a satisfactory solution can be found by the industry, there is a need for market participants to reflect on whether a solution based on euribor is sustainable also in the long run, in particular should other jurisdictions decide to abandon similar rates. for that reason it is important that the working group continues its work on the construction of credible term rates as fallback rates for euribor. ester as a new benchmark this notwithstanding, the ecb looks forward to taking on its new role as administrator of ester. 6 / 10 bis central bankers'speeches given the critical role of risk - free rates for market functioning and monetary policy, the ecb attaches high importance to the smooth production of ester, which must be guaranteed even in times of unforeseen stress or disruption. this includes building the infrastructure, defining processes and governance, and testing operations. staff are working intensively to complete all these steps. developing ester within a tight time frame means that there is a trade - off involved : the better market participants are prepared for and understand the properties of ester, the faster the transition to a liquid market is likely to be. i can therefore understand the arguments of those pushing for a speedy release of the new rate. but too fast a publication might entail operational risks. a sufficient period of testing is required to make sure that the technical set - up achieves the highest degree of reliability to guarantee the smooth production of ester. robust business continuity and contingency plans must be developed. we have therefore communicated that we will publish ester by october 2019 at the latest. in other words, we aim at releasing ester as early as possible, but only once we are confident that it meets our requirements regarding reliability and robustness. we have