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/