BOK able to borrow short-term dollar funding from U.S. Fed

Home > Business > Finance

print dictionary print

BOK able to borrow short-term dollar funding from U.S. Fed

Korea will be able to borrow up to $60 billion from the U.S. Federal Reserve's "repo facility," designed to help countries secure overnight dollar funding by using their holdings of U.S. Treasury securities, the central bank said Thursday.
 
The deal reached with the Federal Reserve on Tuesday (U.S. time) will allow the Bank of Korea (BOK) to exchange its U.S. Treasury holdings for dollars through the Foreign and International Monetary Authorities (FIMA) Repo Facility at an interest rate of 0.25 percent, according to the central bank.
 
The FIMA Repo Facility is designed to provide a "backstop source of temporary dollar liquidity" for its account holders, including foreign central banks.
 
The account holders can enter into repurchase agreements with the Federal Reserve and exchange their U.S. Treasury securities for dollars. The borrowing has a one-day maturity that can be rolled over if necessary.
 
As of end-October, Korea held $125.4 billion worth of U.S. Treasury securities, of which more than 90 percent are said to be owned by the BOK.
 
The FIMA Repo Facility was temporarily launched in March 2020 to cushion market instability caused by the pandemic. It was turned into a standing system in July this year.
 
The BOK said that the latest deal will help the country secure a new source for dollar liquidity that can be utilized when necessary.
 
The deal came days after the BOK said its $60 billion currency swap contract with the Federal Reserve will expire as scheduled later this month, saying that financial and economic situations at home and abroad remain stable.
 
The BOK signed the currency swap contract in March 2020 to ease financial anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic and had since extended the deal three times. It is set to expire on Dec. 31.
 
Yonhap 
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)