Fed will auction $200 billion in Treasuries (Bloomberg) (11-03-2008)

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve will auction to offer the market $200 billion in Treasury securities and increase swap lines with two foreign central banks in its attempt to ease renewed turmoil in credit markets.

The Fed said in a statement it is establishing a new Term Securities Lending Facility to, through weekly auctions, lend as much as $200 billion of Treasuries to primary dealers for 28 days, instead of overnight as it currently does. The loans may be secured by collateral including agency and private mortgage- backed securities, the Fed said.

The Federal Open Market Committee also authorized increasing currency swap lines with the European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank to $30 billion and $6 billion, respectively, increasing the ECB's line by $10 billion and the Swiss line by $2 billion.

Source: Bloomberg