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Press release

Communications
P.O. Box, CH-8022 Zurich
Telephone +41 44 631 31 11
communications@snb.ch
Zurich, 31 October 2013

Central banks convert temporary swap arrangements to
standing arrangements

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the
Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank announced on Thursday that their existing
temporary bilateral liquidity swap arrangements are being converted to standing
arrangements, that is, arrangements that will remain in place until further notice.
The standing arrangements will constitute a network of bilateral swap lines among the six
central banks. These arrangements allow for the provision of liquidity in each jurisdiction in
any of the five currencies foreign to that jurisdiction, should the two central banks in a
particular bilateral swap arrangement judge that market conditions warrant such action in one
of their currencies.
The existing temporary swap arrangements have helped to ease strains in financial markets
and mitigate their effects on economic conditions. The standing arrangements will continue to
serve as a prudent liquidity backstop.

Swiss National Bank action
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has decided, in cooperation with other central banks, to
convert the precautionary and temporary network of reciprocal swap lines into a standing
arrangement. This action will allow the SNB to provide Swiss francs to these central banks
when required, as well as enabling the SNB to provide liquidity to Swiss banks, should it be
needed, in Canadian dollars, British pounds, Japanese yen, and euros (in addition to the
existing operations in US dollars). Up to now there was no need to activate those swap lines.
The SNB intends to continue offering US dollar liquidity-providing repo operations at terms
of one week and three months until further notice. Further information about the US dollar

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Zurich, 31 October 2013

Press release

operations and the technical requirements are posted on the SNB website
(www.snb.ch/en/ifor/finmkt/id/finmkt_usdollars).
Information on the actions taken by other central banks is available at the following websites:
Bank of Canada: www.bankofcanada.ca
Bank of England: www.bankofengland.co.uk
Bank of Japan: www.boj.or.jp/en
European Central Bank: www.ecb.int
Federal Reserve System: www.federalreserve.gov

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