Terms and Conditions for RIX and Monetary Policy Instruments: proposed amendments circulated for consultation
News The Riksbank proposes amendments to the contractual conditions applying to participants in the Swedish payment system RIX and participants in the monetary policy operational framework. Among other things, these amendments are aimed both at changing the requirements for RIX participants and monetary policy counterparties and at making the Riksbank's monetary policy operational framework easier to understand. The Riksbank now invites the participants in the RIX system to submit comments on the proposed amendments.
Similar to central banks in other countries, the Riksbank provides a central payment system for large payments in Sweden. Banks and other financial institutions use this system to make payments among themselves. The Swedish payment system is called RIX and banks, clearing organisations, the Swedish National Debt Office, the Riksbank and others are participants.
Some RIX participants are also monetary policy counterparties. These are the participants with whom the Riksbank interacts to be able to control the overnight rate and thereby put decisions on the policy rate into practice. The aim of this is to steer market rates and ultimately economic activity and inflation.
The Riksbank has specific requirements for RIX that must be met for an institution to be accepted as a participant. Parallel with the role as participant, there are the roles of monetary policy counterparty and counterparty in foreign exchange transactions. The contractual conditions that regulate participation in RIX are collected in the "Terms and Conditions for RIX and Monetary Policy Instruments". The Riksbank now proposes amendments of the conditions and is therefore sending out the proposed amendments to the RIX participants for consultation.
The Riksbank proposes adjusted requirements for RIX participants and monetary policy counterparties, as well as simplifying the circle of counterparties so that the Riksbank, in future, will only have one category of monetary policy counterparty. Furthermore, it proposes a clearer categorisation of monetary policy instruments. To increase understanding of the Riksbank's monetary policy operational framework and its application, the Riksbank has also produced a more complete description of the monetary policy operational framework.