Basis point

Um basis point (ponto base), frequentemente designado como bp, bps ou pb (ponto base) ou ainda ‱; é uma unidade igual a 1/100th de 1%. É normalmente usado para denotar a variação de instrumentos financeiros, ou a diferença (Spread) entre duas taxas de juro. Embora possa ser usado em qualquer situação onde se usam percentagens, é principalmente usado - por conviniência - onde as quantidades em percentagem são baixas. Também evita a ambiguidade em discussões onde está em dúvida se falamos de uma alteração relativa ou absoluta: Uma "subida de 1%" numa taxa de juro de 10% significa que esta vai para 10.1% ou para 11%. O uso de "basis point" é sempre aditivo, pelo que uma subida de 100bps seria sempre de 10% para 11%.

It is commonly used to denote the change in a financial instrument, or the difference (spread) between two interest rates; although it may be used in any case where percentages are used, it is used for convenience when quantities in percentage points are small. It also avoids the ambiguity between relative and absolute discussions about rates: does a "1% increase" in a 10% interest rate mean that it goes from 10% to 10.1%, or to 11%?

The basis point is commonly used for calculating changes in interest rates, equity indexes and the yield of a fixed-income security. The type of interest rate has to be specified (e.g., bond yield, zero-coupon yield, Act/360 money market rate, Act/365 money market rate, etc).

Since certain loans and bonds may commonly be quoted in relation to some index or underlying security, they will often be quoted as a spread over (or under) the index. For example, a loan that bears interest of 0.50% above LIBOR is said to be 50 basis points over LIBOR.

Examples

A rate change from 5% to 6%, reflects a change of 1% or 100 basis points (Note 5% to 6% is actually a 20% increase: by using basis points, it is clear that the change in rate as an absolute number is being discussed.)

A rate change from 6.7% to 6.9% reflects a change of .2% or 20 basis points. A rate change from 2.75% to 3.20% reflects a change of .45% or 45 basis points

Related units

• Percentage point.
• Percent (%) 1 part in 100.
• Permille (‰) 1 part in 1000.
• Parts per million (ppm).
• Parts per billion (ppb).
• Parts per trillion (ppt).