The official cash rate (OCR) is the interest rate paid by banks in the overnight money market in Australia and New Zealand. Through the regulated use of exchange settlement accounts, a central bank is able to adjust the interest rates of a nation's economy. The OCR cannot be changed by transactions between financial institutions as this does not change the supply of money, only its location. Only transfers between the central bank and an institution can affect the cash rate.
As banks are made to settle all inter-bank transfers overnight, the central bank can regulate the rate paid for cash by the sale or buy back of bonds and other government issued securities (these are known as domestic market operations). As the sale or purchase of bonds affects the supply of money, then the interest rate will change to reflect its availability. This system indirectly influences the term structure of interest rates in the whole economy. Changes to the official cash rate generally affect the rates on housing and other loans within a matter of days or weeks. Under the Australian system the Reserve Bank of Australia issues its dealing intentions at the start of each day, and banks and other financial institutions will act prior to the actual rate being achieved.
Read more about Official Cash Rate: New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the words official, cash and/or rate:
“I know one husband and wife who, whatever the official reasons given to the court for the break up of their marriage, were really divorced because the husband believed that nobody ought to read while he was talking and the wife that nobody ought to talk while she was reading.”
—Vera Brittain (1893–1970)
“Lora May: Did you ever stop to think, Porter, that in over three years there’s one word we’ve never said to each other, even in fun.
Porter: To you, I’m a cash register. You can’t love a cash register.
Lora May: And I’m part of your inventory. You can’t love that either.”
—Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993)
“If you could choose your parents,... we would rather have a mother who felt a sense of guilt—at any rate who felt responsible, and felt that if things went wrong it was probably her fault—we’d rather have that than a mother who immediately turned to an outside thing to explain everything, and said it was due to the thunderstorm last night or some quite outside phenomenon and didn’t take responsibility for anything.”
—D.W. Winnicott (20th century)