5 central banks announce swap arrangements to boost liquidity+

TOKYO, April 6 Kyodo - Five central banks in the United States, Japan and Europe stepped up their battle against the global financial turmoil Monday, announcing they have agreed on a currency swap scheme to enable the U.S. Federal Reserve to provide liquidity.

With liquidity drying up in the U.S. financial system amid the credit crisis,
the Fed reached the swap deal, worth a total of up to about 29 trillion yen,
with the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the
Swiss National Bank.
Under the agreement, if the need arises, the Fed would obtain yen, euros,
British pounds and Swiss francs from the other central banks in exchange for
dollars, providing foreign currency liquidity to U.S. financial institutions.
For its part, the BOJ agreed to provide up to 10 trillion yen (about $99
billion) to the Fed under the deal effective through Oct. 30, it said.
The central banks have been enhancing their cooperation in order to foster
stability in global financial markets.
In a similar move, they have arranged for the Fed to provide dollars to other
central banks to enable them to provide dollar liquidity to their home markets.
==Kyodo