Fed lines up foreign currencies for US banks

Fed lines up foreign currencies for US banks
By Krishna Guha in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 6 2009 15:34 | Last updated: April 6 2009 15:34
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb1f9268-22b6-11de-9c99-00144feabdc0.html


The Federal Reserve on Monday lined up hundreds of billions of dollars worth of euros, yen, pounds and swiss francs to lend to US banks as needed to meet their foreign currency needs.

The US central bank entered into currency swap agreements with the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank to secure access to up to E80bn, Y10,000bn, GBP30bn and SFR40bn.

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The Fed has already authorised these four central banks to borrow unlimited amounts of dollars from it to meet the dollar funding needs of their local banks.

The Fed is not immediately drawing on the new foreign exchange swap lines.