This is more a philosophicalquestion than a financial question, let me explain.
There exist different types of interest rate (Annual Interest rate, Semi-annual interest rate, monthly interest rate, continuously compounded interest rate...)
The thing is that there is a relation between all this compondings (because at the end is a constant coefficient "a" to the power of time):
Annually compounded interest rate: (1+r)^t -> a^t where a = (1+r)
Semianual compounded interest rate: (1+r/m)^(mt)-> a^t where a = (1+r/m)^m
Continioulsy compounded interest rate: e^(rt) -> a^t where a = e^r
I'm coming from a scientific background (I hold a B.Sc. in Physics) and I don't understand why they are different if at the end is the same Because I think that this could lead to large confusions. One could be when someone is writing an article, or publishing some "interest rate" information on to a market data platform (Bloomberg, Reuters...) without adding the (compounding) information I could understand for example, that is continious compounded insted of annualy compounded that the publisher thinks it is.
As there is term structure of interest rates (so that, for each maturity we have an interest rate), why don't we create a discount curve instead of a yield curve. And create an international convention for that (that could help "street people" to understand better the financial product the bank is offering)
Edit: For example a good "international" choise could be the net return that is the annually compounded interest rate