The City calls them Bips. This just means 0.01 per cent. So 100 basis points sound enormous but are in fact only 1 per cent. The need for such teensy-weensy calibrations in interest rates has arisen because such vast quantities of money are being chucked around in the form of loans, bonds, currency trades, etc, that every tiny movement in interest rates can mean the loss or gain of a huge sum of money.
