These were expressed by setting the rate for the marginal lending facility at 4.50% and the rate for the deposit facility at 2% BIS Review 1/1999  –2–  for the start of Stage Three. Hence, the corridor for movements in short-term interest rates is asymmetric towards the upper boundary.
Determining these rates was also necessary in order to provide successors to the official national central bank rates previously used as reference rates in certain legislation and contracts in some Member States. Second, however, the Governing Council also had to consider the possibility that market participants may need some time to get used to the new environment for monetary policy.