The changeover to the euro has led to a variation in the calculation of the remuneration that the French state must pay to the central banks: it is now established on the basis of two key ECB rates. The first one, the main refinancing rate, is applied to the foreign exchange reserves placed in the levelling account, which we discussed in Chapter 2. The second one, the marginal lending facility rate, is applied to the mandatory share of the reserves in the operations accounts (50 per cent for the BCEAO and 50 per cent, with a tolerance of 40 per cent since 2014, for the BEAC). … This means that they lost money and that, just like in the past, they 'have paid the French Treasury to store their foreign reserves', as Pouemi noted.

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 264