Hi @ausbitbank - thanks for bringing more attention to this issue.

Currently the price is $0.9567 on Bittrex. This is not great (we want it to be within $.01 of $1 if possible) but $0.95 to $1.05 is generally considered an acceptable range. It is fairly normal for it to drop below $0.95 or above $1.05 temporary, usually due to large buy or sell orders, or dramatic shifts in the market. As long as it comes back 'into range' within a short amount of time, it is not a huge concern.

The whitepaper has this to say:
Changes to the interest rate policy and/or any premiums/discounts on the STEEM/SBD conversion rate should be a slow and measured response to long-term average deviations rather than attempting to respond to short-term market conditions.

A lot of us have been watching the medium/long terms very closely, and trying to calculate / decide what the right move is. It was actually very recently that we were in a situation where we were charging a premium on SBD conversions and talking about ways to push the price down. We are trying to avoid a "knee-jerk" reaction, and look more at what the medium/long-term trends are.

Another factor (unfortunately) is the lack of stability of the main exchanges. It is a separate issue, and one that needs to be dealt with, but it cannot be ignored that a large factor in the price of SBD is likely related to the fact that users are unable to reliably use the exchanges. It is questionable/debatable as to whether or not the witnesses want to adjust their APR policy based on the external factor of unstable exchanges. I don't know if there is a right/wrong answer here, but it is part of the debate.

I recently adjusted my interest to 0.5%, because I had started to notice a medium term trend of SBD frequently being at $0.95, with occasional dips below. I largely blame the exchanges, but my view is that if this is going to be the new 'norm', then we should probably factor this in to the price until they are stable again. I'm hoping the performance improvements the Steemit dev team blogged about will help with this. I have starting to feel that some interest is warranted, which is why I increased my APR to 0.5%. I know it is not much, and maybe it is not enough. It was mainly a signal to start having others look into possibly increasing theirs.

If we do see a prolonged/continued SBD price staying at an equilibrium closer to $0.95, where it rarely/infrequently is making it back to / above $1.00 USD, then I think we should definitely move back to having a small amount of APR interest again. I don't think 5% is necessary, even though SBD is 5% below $1. It doesn't always work out as a one-to-one effect. I would probably aim to start at 1-2% interest and see how it goes. If users are able to get a small amount of interest for buying/holding SBD again, it may be enough to supply the slight increase in demand that is needed to bring the peg back to $1 USD.

One last thing, just so folks have the info - the way SBD APR works is it pays in monthly intervals. If all of the witnesses increased their APR to 1% today, it would not pay out for another 30 days. At that point, users who had held SBD for 30 days would get their monthly portion of the 1% yearly interest. If witnesses don't keep the interest in place for at least a month, then no interest is paid. (This is another reason why it is important to use it as a reaction to longer term trends, rather than short-term market fluctuations.)

Thanks again for writing this post.