Fed extends dollar lifeline for central banks

US Fed extends dollar lifeline for central banks
The US Federal Reserve on Tuesday extended until August an emergency tool for other Central Banks to access US dollars, amid market jitters and high demand for the safe haven greenback. The deal, which had been due to expire in January, allows the Central Banks of Britain, Japan, Canada and Switzerland, as well as the European Central Bank, to exchange local currency for US dollars. The swap agreements were sealed in May, but as a Debt crisis and slow Economic Recovery continues to roil markets ...

Fed throws euro banks a lifeline
Fed throws euro banks a lifeline Posted by Colin Barr December 21, 2010 4:19 pm For an outfit whose policies supposedly are plunging the world into unspeakable conflict, the Federal Reserve is doing an awful lot to avoid another meltdown. The Fed said Tuesday it would extend The Dollar swap lines it provides to Central Banks in Europe, Japan and Canada in a bid to avoid a cash crunch like the ones seen to such devastating effect in 2008. Your dollars, our problem? The swap lines, under which...

Fed Extends Currency Swap Lines Over Eurobank Dollar Funding Concerns
The party line is everything is fine in bank land….even Eurobank land. But some recent developments suggest otherwise. The business news on Europe has pretty much daily updates on the unfolding and linked Sovereign Debt/ bank solvency crisis. The officialdom insists this looming problem can be resolved but most observers think it can’t be in the absence of a fiscal union, which is a political bridge too Far Right now. In a not-widely-noticed replay of pre-crisis conditions, the co...

Fed throws euro banks a lifeline
For an outfit whose policies supposedly are plunging the world into unspeakable conflict, the Federal Reserve is doing an awful lot to avoid another meltdown. The Fed said Tuesday it would extend The Dollar swap lines it provides to Central Banks in Europe, Japan and Canada in a bid to avoid a cash crunch like the ones seen to such devastating effect in 2008. Your dollars, our problem? The swap lines, under which the Fed provides foreign central Bankers with essentially unlimited stocks of doll...

EUR/CHF Continues To Make Historic Lows On Euro Zone Tensions
The euro is slightly firmer today vs. The Dollar today, but continues to make new historic lows vs. Swiss franc just below 1.25, suggesting that euro zone tensions remain strong. EM currencies continue to firm, suggesting a bit of decoupling from the euro zone crisis. However, trading ranges are fairly narrow as we head into the holiday weekend. The ECB said will lend out EUR149.5 bln in 3-month loans, and that 270 banks bid for the money. Banks need to repay EUR96.9 bln in maturing 12-month l...

Extended Fed Currency Swaps Not Sign of Fresh Concern
By Michael S. Derby The Federal Reserve ’s extension of it currency swap arrangements with other major Central Bank reflects continued unease around the state of European Financial Markets. That said, the decision to maintain the swap lines with the Bank of Canada , Bank of England , the European Central Bank , the Bank of Japan and Swiss National Bank , should be viewed more as a protective action on the part of American officials. It is not, most Economists reckon, a sign that some new ...

Fed throws euro banks a lifeline
For an outfit whose policies supposedly are plunging the world into unspeakable conflict, the Federal Reserve is doing an awful lot to avoid another meltdown. The Fed said Tuesday it would extend The Dollar swap lines it provides to Central Banks in Europe, Japan and Canada in a bid to avoid a cash crunch like the ones seen to such devastating effect in 2008. Your dollars, our problem? The swap lines, under which the Fed provides foreign central Bankers with essentially unlimited stocks of doll...

FOREX-Euro helped by report China will buy Portugal's debt
Wed Dec 22, 2010 7:49am EST * Euro gets lift from report China will buy Portuguese Debt * ECB tender shows heavy reliance on cheap funding * Euro hovers near all-time low vs Swiss franc (Adds detail, updates prices) By Anirban Nag LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The euro gained against The Dollar and bounced from all-time lows against the Swiss franc on Wednesday, boosted by a news report that China was ready to buy significant amounts of Portuguese Sovereign Debt. The Jornal de Negocios daily rep...

Fed extends USD swaps with major central banks
By Sakari Suoninen Frankfurt | Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:58am EST Frankfurt (Reuters) - The world's major Central Banks said on Tuesday they would extend emergency supplies of U.S. dollar funding to money markets, in a sign that authorities remain concerned about financial instability as governments grapple with Debt problems. The European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank extended their U.S. dollar Liquidity providing operations with t...

Fed extends program to ease Europe debt crisis
The Federal Reserve extended a program set up earlier this year to ease strains from the European Debt crisis. The program, which was set to expire in January, will now run through Aug. 1, the Fed announced on Tuesday. The Fed is Lending dollars to other Central Banks in exchange for their currencies. The Central Banks can lend those dollars out to banks in their home countries to ease financial turmoil. The Fed's "swap" program was set up in May as fears rose that Greece's Debt crisis could eng...

Fed extends program to ease Europe debt crisis...
The Fed is Lending dollars to other Central Banks in exchange for their currencies. The Central Banks can lend those dollars out to banks in their home countries to ease financial turmoil. The Fed's "swap" program was set up in May as fears rose that Greece's Debt crisis could engulf other European countries. European Banks need dollars to lend to companies across the continent. European companies that have operations in the U.S. pay their employees in dollars and buy raw materials with the U.S....

FOMC statement: Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, Bank of England, and Swiss National Bank
The Federal Open Market Committee has authorized an extension through August 1, 2011, of its temporary U.S. dollar Liquidity swap arrangements with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank. The swap arrangements, established in May 2010, had been authorized through January 2011. ...

Congressman Paul Says Fed Transparency Is His Goal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Congressman Ron Paul, the new head of the subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve, said on Sunday he will seek greater transparency but will not be sending Subpoenas to the Central Bank chairman from Day One. Paul, a longtime critic of the Fed, will be the new chairman of the domestic Monetary Policy subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee when the new Congress is seated in January. "Now that doesn't mean that the first week in January I...

China may try new ways to manage bank credit
Beijing | Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:58am EST Beijing (Reuters) - China's Central Bank is considering changing a key component of its Monetary Policy management by altering the way it manages bank credit, three sources close to the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. Under the proposed changes, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) may judge how much a bank can lend by looking at its capital adequacy ratio, Liquidity conditions and provisions for bad loans. That means the PBOC may set different deposit reser...

The Federal Reserve: Aging Magician of the Welfare State
December Currency deposits__ supply_          growth rate        increase__              2005                       728.9              3,233.3 ...

Investors enter 2011 in bullish mood: Reuters poll
Are you a stock or a bond? London (Reuters) - Investors are entering 2011 in a relatively Bullish mood, raising equity holdings to a 10-month high, increasing exposure to high-yield credit and cutting back on government Debt, Reuters polls showed on Wednesday. Within bond portfolios, however, concern about the cost of U.S. Treasuries and the stability of euro zone Debt, did not show up dramatically. Allocations to Emerging Market debt were cut instead. Surveys of 55 leading investment houses in...

Investors enter 2011 in bullish mood: Reuters poll
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent LONDON | Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:42am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Investors are entering 2011 in a relatively Bullish mood, raising equity holdings to a 10-month high, increasing exposure to high-yield credit and cutting back on government Debt, Reuters polls showed on Wednesday. Within bond portfolios, however, concern about the cost of U.S. Treasuries and the stability of euro zone Debt, did not show up dramatically. Allocations to Emerging Market de...

Investors enter 2011 in bullish mood: Reuters poll
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent LONDON | Wed Dec 22, 2010 9:42am EST LONDON (Reuters) - Investors are entering 2011 in a relatively Bullish mood, raising equity holdings to a 10-month high, increasing exposure to high-yield credit and cutting back on government Debt, Reuters polls showed on Wednesday. Within bond portfolios, however, concern about the cost of U.S. Treasuries and the stability of euro zone Debt, did not show up dramatically. Allocations to Emerging Market de...

EURO GOVT-Bund yields at record lows, peripherals lag
Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:02am EDT * Bund yields at record lows as U.S. growth fears rise * ECB Weber's Liquidity comments boost Bunds, Euribor * U.S. Treasuries favoured over Bunds * Peripheral euro Debt spreads seen wider By George Matlock London, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Longer-dated German Government Bond yields marked record lows on Friday, chasing buoyant U.S. Treasury prices after an ECB rate-setter's comments on extending funding to banks fuelled concerns about the pace of the global recovery. Aft...

On the Gutting of Financial Services Reform
Bloomberg has a well done but disheartening account of the watering-down-to-meaninglessness of Financial Services industry reform, with the case example being Basel III. Basel III is the latest iteration of capital standards for banks, which is hoped to be implemented more or less true to form by various national bank Regulators. Richard Smith has been ably covering the substance of this beat (see here and here for earlier posts) and the details are indeed more that a bit convoluted. However, ...

San Francisco Fed Offers Sympathy to Pre-Crisis Mortgage Lenders
By Michael S. Derby Mortgage lenders may deserve more sympathy for their performance in the years leading up to the Financial Crisis than they now get credit for, new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco argues. Bank Economist John Krainer , with Visiting Scholar Stephen LeRoy , argue in a note Monday that even though the market ended up blowing up, mortgage lenders had rationally priced in what was understood about Housing Market risk at the time they wrote the loans. That&#...

Reserve Currency Roulette
Following up on our post from Friday, in which we illustrated the currency reserve and GDP market share of a number of different countries, a kind reader asked a question: “I wonder what percentage of the world’s foreign exchange reserves The Dollar had when it was redeemable among central banks in gold?” Our source for the graph, the IMF, only showed data going back to 1995, so we dug a little more and found the answer in a paper written by Barry Eichengreen of the University ...

Stocks poised for flat open
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks were poised for a muted open Wednesday morning ahead of several economic reports, as investors pack up for the holidays and prepare for 2011. Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and NASDAQ (COMP) futures were nearly unchanged ahead of the opening bell. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance. Email Print Comment On Tuesday, U.S. stocks rose modestly but managed to close at their highest levels in more t...

ECB's Trichet: Ireland must stick to bailout plan
PARIS | Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:50am EST PARIS (Reuters) - European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday euro zone countries must do more individually and collectively to combat the bloc's Debt crisis, and Ireland must stick "rigorously" to its Bailout plan. In a position paper published on its website, the ECB earlier expressed "serious concerns" that Ireland's rescue package could affect the institution's Liquidity operations in the euro zone. Asked if he was concerned about the ...

ECB's Trichet: Ireland must stick to bailout plan
PARIS | Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:50am EST PARIS (Reuters) - European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday euro zone countries must do more individually and collectively to combat the bloc's Debt crisis, and Ireland must stick "rigorously" to its Bailout plan. In a position paper published on its website, the ECB earlier expressed "serious concerns" that Ireland's rescue package could affect the institution's Liquidity operations in the euro zone. Asked if he was concerned about the ...