Browse Benchmark Rates

Overnight and Risk-Free Benchmarks

Overnight and near risk-free benchmark terms such as SOFR, SONIA, ESTR, TONA, and EONIA.

Overnight and risk-free benchmarks are short-maturity reference rates designed around overnight wholesale funding or repo-market transactions rather than unsecured term bank estimates. They matter because many post-LIBOR contracts use overnight rates with compounding, observation shifts, or term-rate variants. The benchmark name alone does not identify the cash-flow convention.

Use this landing page as an orientation layer within Interbank Benchmarks, then move into EONIA, ESTR, and SOFR when a narrower term controls the contract or valuation question.

Key Takeaways

  • Verify the official source, tenor, observation date, and calculation convention before using any rate.
  • Match the benchmark to the contract or model language rather than relying on a similar market label.
  • Treat benchmark rates as inputs for analysis, not as investment recommendations or guarantees of future rates.

How This Section Fits Together

AreaUse it when the question is about
EONIAthe exact benchmark family, administrator, or fallback clause.
ESTRthe curve input, maturity point, or term-structure interpretation.
SOFRthe publication source, index mechanics, or rate-setting convention.
SONIAthe narrower article owns the contract evidence or valuation input.
TONAthe exact benchmark family, administrator, or fallback clause.

Example in Use

A SOFR-based swap may use daily compounded SOFR in arrears, while a loan may use a term SOFR convention. Both reference SOFR, but the accrual period, operational timing, and payment amount can differ.

What to Check

  • Identify whether the rate is overnight, compounded average, index-based, or term-derived.
  • Check publication time, business-day calendar, lookback, lockout, and payment delay.
  • Confirm whether the rate is secured, unsecured, transaction-based, or derived from another benchmark.

Common Mistakes

  • Calling an overnight benchmark risk-free in a way that ignores contract, liquidity, or operational risk.
  • Using a simple overnight fixing where the contract requires a compounded average.
  • Mixing SOFR, SONIA, ESTR, TONA, and EONIA conventions without checking jurisdiction.

Source Checks

For decision-grade work, compare the rate label with New York Fed SOFR data, New York Fed SOFR Averages and Index, and Bank of England SONIA benchmark. Use the official administrator, regulator, or central-bank source required by the contract when the stakes are legal, accounting, valuation, or settlement related.

Educational Use

This page is for financial education only. It does not provide investment, legal, tax, accounting, or trading advice, and it should not be used as a substitute for the governing contract, official rate administrator, or qualified professional review.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

€STR

Euro overnight funding benchmark used in derivatives, floating-rate contracts, and euro-area money markets.

EONIA

EONIA is the overnight reference rate for the eurozone interbank market, as computed by the European Central Bank.

SOFR

Treasury-backed overnight funding benchmark widely used in floating-rate loans, swaps, and U.S. dollar valuation.

SONIA

SONIA is an interbank benchmark-rate concept used to price loans, derivatives, and floating-rate instruments.

TONA

TONA is an interbank benchmark-rate concept used to price loans, derivatives, and floating-rate instruments.

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026
LIBOR Transition