The encyclopedia · Finance & Accounting · Financial decision · 2020
The Fed's standing swap lines kept dollars flowing to global banks in the 2020 panic.
The Fed's pre-arranged swap lines let central banks lend dollars to their banks; in 2020 it made them daily and added a repo backstop.
Federal Reserve · Bank of England · European Central Bank · Swiss National Bank · Bank of Canada · Bank of Japan
the move
Global banks, companies and governments borrow in dollars, so a shortage of dollars abroad is a worldwide funding crunch. In March 2020 that scramble for dollars was severe.
Rather than invent a solution mid-crisis, the Fed scaled a facility that already existed: standing swap lines with the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, ECB and Swiss National Bank, plus temporary lines to nine more countries.
On March 20 the group agreed to increase 7-day operations from weekly to daily while keeping weekly 84-day operations; the dollar index fell about 0.4% on the news, and the Fed also opened a temporary repo backstop for central banks, the FIMA facility.
why it works
- A standing facility is trusted because it is arranged in calm times, not improvised in a panic
- Partner central banks relay dollars to local banks, so one facility reaches every market at once
- Making it cheaper, longer and daily scales a single trusted tool instead of inventing several
what transfers
A liquidity backstop must be pre-announced and standing to matter: you cannot improvise credibility in a panic, but you can scale a trusted facility fast.
what came after
The swap lines and the FIMA repo were extended through 2021 as part of the Fed's crisis toolkit. The design proved the value of pre-arranged currency lines and was reused at scale, strengthening the case for a permanent network of central-bank swap lines as a source of global dollar liquidity.
references
- Coordinated central bank action to further enhance the provision of U.S. dollar liquidity
- Fed increases frequency of swap line operations with other major central banks
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