MNI: The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the....>

MNI: The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European

Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank today announced a

coordinated action to enhance the provision of liquidity via the standing U.S.

dollar liquidity swap line arrangements. 

- These central banks have agreed to lower the pricing on the standing U.S.

dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 25 basis points, so that the new rate will

be the U.S. dollar overnight index swap (OIS) rate plus 25 basis points. To

increase the swap lines' effectiveness in providing term liquidity, the central

banks with regular U.S. dollar liquidity operations have also agreed to begin

offering dollars weekly in each jurisdiction with an 84-day maturity, in

addition to the 1-week maturity operations currently offered. These changes will

take effect with the next scheduled operations during the week of March 16.1 The

new pricing and maturity offerings will remain in place as long as appropriate

to support the smooth functioning of U.S. dollar funding markets.