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Eurodollars are time deposits denominated in U.S. dollars at banks outside the United States, and thus are not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve. Consequently, such deposits are subject to much less regulation than similar deposits within the U.S.. The term was originally coined for U.S. dollars in European banks, but it expanded over the years to its present definition—a U.S. dollar-denominated deposit in Tokyo or Beijing would be likewise deemed a Eurodollar deposit. There is no connection with the euro currency or the eurozone. More generally, the ''euro-'' prefix can be used to indicate any currency held in a country where it is not the official currency: for example, Euroyen or even Euroeuro. == History == Gradually, after World War II, the quantity of U.S. dollars outside the United States increased enormously, as a result of both the Marshall Plan and imports into the U.S., which had become the largest consumer market after World War II. As a result, enormous sums of U.S. dollars were in the custody of foreign banks outside the United States. Some foreign countries, including the Soviet Union, also had deposits in U.S. dollars in American banks, granted by certificates. Various history myths exist for the first Eurodollar creation, or booking, but most trace back to Communist governments keeping dollar deposits abroad. In one version, the first booking traces back to Communist China, which, in 1949, managed to move almost all of its U.S. dollars to the Soviet-owned Banque Commerciale pour l'Europe du Nord in Paris before the United States froze the remaining assets during the Korean War.〔 In another version, the first booking traces back to the Soviet Union during the Cold War period, especially after the invasion of Hungary in 1956, as the Soviet Union feared that its deposits in North American banks would be frozen as a retaliation. It decided to move some of its holdings to the Moscow Narodny Bank, a Soviet-owned bank with a British charter. The British bank would then deposit that money in the US banks. There would be no chance of confiscating that money, because it belonged to the British bank and not directly to the Soviets. On 28 February 1957, the sum of $800,000 was transferred, creating the first eurodollars. Initially dubbed "Eurbank dollars" after the bank's telex address, they eventually became known as "eurodollars" as such deposits were at first held mostly by European banks and financial institutions.〔 A major role was played by City of London banks, as the Midland Bank, now HSBC, and their offshore holding companies. In the mid-1950s, Eurodollar trading and its development into a dominant world currency began when the Soviet Union wanted better interest rates on their Eurodollars and convinced an Italian banking cartel to give them more interest than what could have been earned if the dollars were deposited in the U.S. The Italian bankers then had to find customers ready to borrow the Soviet dollars and pay above the U.S. legal interest-rate caps for their use, and were able to do so; thus, Eurodollars began to be used increasingly in global finance. Eurodollars can have a higher interest rate attached to them because of the fact that they are out of reach from the Federal Reserve. U.S. banks hold an account at the Fed and can, ostensibly, receive unlimited liquidity from the Fed should any trouble arise. These required reserves and Fed backing make U.S. Dollar deposits in U.S. banks inherently less risky, and Eurodollar deposits slightly more risky, which requires a slightly higher interest rate. By the end of 1970, 385 billion eurodollars were booked offshore.〔William Brittain-Catlin: Offshore – The Dark Side of the Global Economy; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005, p.8-9〕 These deposits were lent on as US dollar loans to businesses in other countries where interest rates on loans were perhaps much higher in the local currency, and where the businesses were exporting to the USA and being paid in dollars, thereby avoiding foreign exchange risk on their loans. Several factors led Eurodollars to overtake certificates of deposit (CDs) issued by U.S. banks as the primary private short-term money market instruments by the 1980s, including: * The successive commercial deficits of the United States * The U.S. Federal Reserve's ceiling on domestic deposits during the high inflation of the 1970s * Eurodollar deposits were a cheaper source of funds because they were free of reserve requirements and deposit insurance assessments〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eurodollar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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