Central Bank Swap Arrangements in the COVID-19 Crisis

Facing acute strains in the offshore dollar funding markets during the COVID-19 crisis, the Federal Reserve (Fed) implemented measures to provide US dollar liquidity by reinforcing swap arrangements with five major central banks, reactivating them with nine other central banks and establishing a financial institutions and monetary authorities (FIMA) repo facility in March 2020. This paper assesses motivations for the Fed liquidity lines, and the effects and spillovers of US dollar auctions by central banks, for about 50 economies. We find that the access to the liquidity arrangements is driven by the recipient economies’ close trade ties with the US. Higher US bank and trade exposure to an economy increases its access to dollar liquidity lines through the swap arrangements and the new repo facility. Access to dollar liquidity also reflects global trade exposure. We investigate the announcement effects of the liquidity arrangements on several key financial variables, and find that announcements of expansion of Fed liquidity facilities led to appreciation of partner currencies against the US dollar, improved CDS spreads, and lowered the long-term interest rates of the recipient economies. Further, US dollar auctions by economies’ own central banks lead to temporary appreciation of their currencies, but dollar auctions by major central banks (BoE, ECB, BoJ and SNB) have persistent spillovers – they led to appreciation of other non-dollar currencies. These responses do not differ whether the economies have larger or smaller financial or trade ties with the US.