The benchmark interest rate is a universal reference interest rate in the financial market, and other interest rate levels or financial asset prices can be determined according to this benchmark interest rate level. Benchmark interest rate is one of the important prerequisites for interest rate marketization. Under the condition of interest rate marketization, financiers need a universally recognized benchmark interest rate level as a reference to measure financing costs, investors calculate investment returns and management's macro-control. Therefore, in a sense, the benchmark interest rate is the core of the formation of interest rate marketization mechanism.

Among them, the countries that take the interbank lending rate as the benchmark interest rate include London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) in Britain, Federal benchmark interest rate (FFR) in the United States, Japan (Tibor) and the European Union (Euribor). The countries with the repo rate as the benchmark interest rate are Germany (1W and 2W repo rates), France (1W repo rate) and Spain (10D repo rate).

In China, the benchmark interest rate is the deposit and loan interest rate stipulated by the People's Bank of China for national specialized banks and other financial institutions. Specifically, the common people regard the one-year fixed deposit interest rate of the bank as the market benchmark interest rate index, and the bank regards the overnight lending rate as the market benchmark interest rate.