Singapore, 28 January 2010...The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said today that the temporary reciprocal currency arrangement (swap line) that was established with the US Federal Reserve on 30 October 2008 will expire on 1 February 2010, as previously announced.
2 MAS joined global central banks in establishing a temporary reciprocal currency arrangement (swap line) of US$30 billion with the US Federal Reserve in October 2008. The swap facilities allowed the Federal Reserve to provide US dollar liquidity to financial institutions through central banks in sound, well-managed and systemically important financial centres to help to improve liquidity conditions in global financial markets and to mitigate the spread of difficulties in obtaining US dollar funding that had arisen as a result of the global financial crisis. This helped to enhance the robustness of the US dollar funding and foreign exchange markets in Singapore by reinforcing confidence among global financial institutions. MAS did not have to draw on the facility.
3 Over the past year, wholesale funding market conditions improved globally and in Singapore. The swap lines, which were established to relieve pressures in global funding markets, are no longer needed. They will therefore be allowed to expire on 1 February 2010 for the central banks with such arrangements.
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Note to Editors:
Information on other Central Banks
Information on swap line arrangements between the Federal Reserve and other central banks is available at the following websites:
Reserve Bank of Australia http://www.rba.gov.au/
Banco Central do Brasil http://www.bcb.gov.br/
Bank of Canada http://www.bankofcanada.ca/
Danmarks Nationalbank http://www.nationalbanken.dk/
Bank of England http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/
European Central Bank http://www.ecb.int/
Federal Reserve System http://www.federalreserve.gov/
Bank of Japan http://www.boj.or.jp/
Bank of Korea http://www.bok.or.kr/
Banco de Mexico http://www.banxico.org.mx/
Reserve Bank of New Zealand http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/
Norges Bank http://www.norges-bank.no/
Sveriges Riksbank http://www.riksbank.com/
Swiss National Bank http://www.snb.ch/