Guide to Analysing Companies

European currency unit
An artificial creation based on a basket of European currencies.
The European Currency Unit (or ecu) was invented by the Euro-
pean Community in the 1970s and came into force with the
signing of the Maastricht treaty in 1992. Its original purpose was
to act as a reserve asset and as a means of settlement in the eu-
ropean monetary system. The ecu ceased to exist on
January 1st 1999 when the euro was created; any ecus then in
use became euros at the rate of one to one.
E
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European Interbank Offered Rate
The rate at which prime banks in the euro zone lend to each
other. Euribor, as it is known, is the benchmark used by
money markets throughout the euro zone and anywhere that
euros are bought and sold. It is calculated each day from data
supplied by a panel of big banks. Euribor was first quoted on
January 4th 1999, the first day that the euro was traded after its
introduction as a notional currency at the beginning of 1999.
(See also euro overnight index average.)
European Investment Bank
A bank created in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome (the treaty which
first established the existence of what has become the European
Union). The European Investment Bank (eib) acts as a develop-
ment bank for Europe, using its good name to borrow cheaply
in the international capital markets and then lending these
(cheap) funds to borrowers in the eu and associate member
states. Most eib loans are for 7–10 years. The bank has certain
priorities. It favours lending to:
 depressed areas where the infrastructure and industry
need upgrading;
 projects that will help to develop European technology;
 infrastructure projects that involve more than one eu
member country, such as a bridge or the Channel Tunnel;
 projects that further a particular interest of the eib. 
The result is a diverse range of borrowers, such as projects to
build roads in Sweden and Greece or to develop renewable
energy in Scotland, and start-up companies involved in biotech-
nology in Germany.