Right from the start of Stage Three of EMU, a unified, deep and liquid euro area-wide money market was successfully established, and the area-wide market has displayed considerably less volatility than the 11 individual money markets before. Moreover, the euro has received widespread acceptance in the bond markets.
To give but two figures, 30% of the outstanding volume of international debt securities were denominated in euro at the end of June 2000, and the euro-denominated issuance volume was roughly comparable to that in USD in the first quarter of 2000. Both sovereign and corporate borrowers are making use of the favorable financing conditions created by the introduction of the euro.