be further expanded. while the first publication contains a total of 20 indicators, covering the main euro financial and banking markets, the coverage of our indicators will be further enhanced, in particular by adding indicators relating to the integration of market infrastructures and financial institutions. second, starting from our definition of financial integration, two broad categories of indicators are considered : price - based indicators and quantity - based indicators. price - based indicators measure discrepancies in asset prices based on their geographic origin. in a perfectly integrated market, prices of assets with similar characteristics should mostly be influenced by common euro area factors. quantity - based indicators are used to investigate the extent to which investors engage in cross - border asset portfolios. finally, it should be noted that the indicators are either computed or model - based. computed indicators – such as standard deviations and ratios – are summary measures of the underlying data, whereas the model - based indicators are derived from econometric models. obviously, these estimates depend on the specific set of modelling assumptions. now that i have addressed these conceptual issues, i will report some of the results that form our assessment of the state of financial integration in the euro area. now and then, i will additionally mention some figures for the united states that usefully serve as a comparison for the euro area. our first publication covers the money market, the government bond market, the corporate bond market, the equity market and the banking markets. the euro acted as a major catalyst for the integration of the euro financial markets. however, the degree of integration differs between market segments, with integration being more advanced in those market segments that are closer to the single monetary policy, above all the money market. our indicators measure the financial integration of the euro money market based on the dispersion of lending rates for actual transactions or rates offered by eonia, euribor and eurepo panel banks. 6 the unsecured interbank deposit market was almost perfectly integrated right at the start of the monetary union. this is a sine qua non for monetary policy implementation, since only an integrated interbank market ensures an even distribution of central bank liquidity and a homogeneous level of short - term interest rates across the euro area. this rapid integration has been mostly supported by the establishment of the related payment system infrastructure, i. e. our target system that has been operational since the first day of monetary union. in fact, the cross - country standard deviation of the average overnight lending rates among euro area countries was

the maturity of their debt, aka “ terming out ”. moreover, lower interest rates on their new issuance have resulted in the average duration of their debt rising by even more. the first two panels show that is true of most sovereigns. the australian governments, commonwealth and state, have proceeded along this path. the australian office of financial management ( aofm ) has significantly extended the curve in australia, by issuing out to a 30 - year 12 / 14 bis central bankers'speeches bond. a number of bonds have been issued well beyond the 10 - year maturity, which was the standard end of the yield curve for a number of years. this has also helped state governments to increase the maturity of their issuance. one interesting exception to the general tendency to term out their debt is the us treasury, which is undertaking a sizeable amount of issuance at the short end of the curve. corporates have also termed out their debt. some corporates have issued debt with maturities as long as 50 years, which is interesting for at least two reasons. firstly, a 50 - year bond starts to take on more equity - like features. secondly, many corporates don ’ t even last 50 years. the australian banks have also availed themselves of the opportunity to term out their funding for relatively little cost. the recently implemented net stable funding ratio ( nsfr ) further incentivises them to do this. as my colleague christopher kent noted a couple of days ago, the average maturity of new issuance of the australian banks has increased from five years in 2013 to six years currently ( graph 10 ). 8 as with other issuers, this materially reduces rollover risk. the banks have been able to issue in size at tenors such as seven or ten years that they historically often thought to be unattainable at any reasonable price. while the low rate structure has often been perceived to be a challenge from the investor point of view, it has been an opportunity for issuers to reduce their rollover risk by extending debt maturities. conclusion the structure of interest rates globally has been at an historically low level for a number of years. this has reflected the aftermath of the financial crisis and the associated monetary policy response. if the global recovery continues to play out as currently anticipated, one would expect that the monetary stimulus will unwind, which would see at least the short - end of yield curves rise. 13 / 14 bis central bankers'speeches at the same time, there