EuriborDaily Euribor and the monthly average are not the same number
If you look up Euribor in the morning, you will usually see today’s rate. If you open a mortgage review letter, you will usually see last month’s average. Both are 12-month Euribor. They are calculated differently, and they are used for different things.
Mixing them up is a common reason a website and a bank letter seem to disagree.
This guide explains the difference, when each figure is useful, and how that affects a variable-rate euro loan.
What is the daily Euribor rate?
The daily rate is the 12-month Euribor published on a business day. In Europe it is normally released around 11:00 Central European Time.
There is no new daily rate on Saturday or Sunday. There is also no new rate on TARGET holidays (for example 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, 25 and 26 December).
On those days, a website may still show the last published figure. That is Friday’s rate, or the last working day before the holiday. It is not a new print.
Use the daily rate when you want to know where the market is today. The live figure is on Euribor today.
What is the monthly average?
The monthly average is the simple average of the daily 12-month rates published in that calendar month.
You add the published days and divide by how many published days there were. You do not divide by 30 or 31. A holiday is a missing day, not a zero.
During the month this average is only a preview. After the last working day of the month, it becomes the closed monthly average. That closed figure is what most euro variable mortgages use when the contract names a month.
You can rebuild a month yourself with the monthly average tool. The finished months are in the history table.
There is also a mid-month average
On the home page you will see a “month-to-date” figure. That is the average of this month so far.
It is useful if you want a sense of where the month is heading. It is not the figure a review letter should use while the month is still open, unless your contract says otherwise.
What does this mean for a mortgage?
A variable euro mortgage usually sets the interest like this:
Interest rate = 12-month Euribor (the figure named in the contract) + the bank’s margin (the differential).
The differential is the extra percentage the bank adds. If the contract says Euribor + 0.90%, that 0.90% is the differential. It does not normally change at each review. The Euribor figure does.
Which Euribor figure? Look at the wording. Many contracts say “the monthly average of 12-month Euribor for the month of …”. That is the closed month, not Tuesday’s daily rate.
Some contracts use a different tenor (3 months, 6 months) or a different rule. The contract wins. This website’s live tables are the 12-month series.
Example (approximate)
This is an illustration, not a real loan.
Assume €150,000 still owed, 25 years left, and a differential of 0.90%. Payments follow the usual equal-instalment method.
| Euribor used | All-in rate | Approx. monthly payment |
|---|---|---|
| 2.20% (older monthly average, example) | 3.10% | €719 |
| 3.10% (later monthly average, example) | 4.00% | €792 |
The difference is about €73 a month on this example. Your loan will be different. If you put today’s daily rate into a formula that should have used last month’s average, you will get a different payment from the bank’s letter — even if both numbers are correct in their own place.
You can run your own amounts in the loan impact calculator. To see daily, month-to-date and last closed month on one loan, use daily vs average.
If you are in another time zone
The daily rate is published on European time. Early morning in New York is often still before the European release. The page may show yesterday’s figure. That is normal. Wait until after 11:00 in Brussels or Madrid, or treat the number as the last published day until then. More detail: when Euribor is published.
What you should check
- Does the contract say 12-month Euribor, or another tenor?
- Does it say daily rate or monthly average?
- Which month does the review letter name?
- Have you added the differential separately?
If you cannot answer those four points, do not copy a figure from a headline yet. Open which number to use today and your letter side by side.
Common mistakes
Using a 3-month Euribor figure in a contract that names 12 months. The two rates often move in the same direction, but they are not interchangeable on a review date.
Dividing the month’s rates by 30. Only published working days count.
Comparing a daily rate from this week with a monthly average from 2008 and calling that a forecast. History is useful when you compare the same type of figure: month with month, daily with daily.
Who publishes the figures
EMMI administers Euribor. Banks, newspapers and this site republish the 12-month series. A republished page can be a few hours behind. If the date on two pages is the same, they should be very close. If the dates differ, wait or pick the official date, not the prettier layout.
This site does not publish live 1-month or 3-month tables from a second feed. If your contract names another tenor, you need that tenor from EMMI or from your bank, not a 12-month figure used as a stand-in.
In short
The daily rate tells you what was published this working day. The monthly average is the mean of those working days in a given month. Most variable euro mortgages use the monthly average named in the contract.
Official administrator: EMMI. This page is information, not a bank notice.
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