NEWS | Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Central banks plan emergency cash

Central banks, including the European Central Bank, have announced a latest round of co-ordinated auctions to provide extra liquidity to financial markets.
The US Federal Reserve is leading the action, while the Bank of England, and central banks of Canada and Switzerland are also involved.
They follow on from similar emergency auctions in December and January.
The aim is to cut the cost of lending between banks, which has been inflated by the credit crunch.
The US Federal Reserve is making up to $200bn (£99bn) available to financial institutions for 28 days instead of the usual overnight auctions.
“Pressures in some of these markets have recently increased again,” the US central bank said in a statement.
“We all continue to work together and will take appropriate steps to address those liquidity pressures.”
It is also extending a “swap lines” scheme, that will provide $30bn and $6bn through the ECB and the Swiss National Bank respectively.
The ECB is also making available another $15bn, despite having said on Friday that it had no plans to do so because the market problems that had made the last auctions necessary were no longer there.