Bank of England offers £15bn assistance
The Bank of England is to provide liquidity assistance of £15bn through a three-month open market operation.
The Bank will offer £15bn at three-month maturity, plus a further £1.35bn in short-term maturities via an auction on 15 April. There will be a minimum rate at the 3-month maturity related to the 3-month overnight index swap rate.
The range of collateral accepted by the Bank will be the same as in previous operations in December 2007 and in January and March of this year.
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"Further measures will be announced in due course following discussions with interested parties which are continuing," the Bank of England said in a statement.
The move is part of a concerted attempt by central banks to ease liquidity pressures in the money markets. The US Federal Reserve is making $50bn in 28-day loans available this week while the results of the European Central Bank's offering of $15bn in 28-day loans will be announced at 2:00pm today.
