For release at 8:00 a.m. EST 
 
 The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank are today announcing coordinated actions to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system. The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity. 
 
 These central banks have agreed to lower the pricing on the existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points so that the new rate will be the U.S. dollar overnight index swap (OIS) rate plus 50 basis points. This pricing will be applied to all operations conducted from December 5, 2011. The authorization of these swap arrangements has been extended to February 1, 2013. In addition, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank will continue to offer three-month tenders until further notice. 
 
 As a contingency measure, these central banks have also agreed to establish temporary bilateral liquidity swap arrangements so that liquidity can be provided in each jurisdiction in any of their currencies should market conditions so warrant. At present, there is no need to offer liquidity in non-domestic currencies other than the U.S. dollar, but the central banks judge it prudent to make the necessary arrangements so that liquidity support operations could be put into place quickly should the need arise. These swap lines are authorized through February 1, 2013. 
 
 Federal Reserve Actions 
 
 The Federal Open Market Committee has authorized an extension of the existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank through February 1, 2013. The rate on these swap arrangements has been reduced from the U.S. dollar OIS rate plus 100 basis points to the OIS rate plus 50 basis points. In addition, as a contingency measure, the Federal Open Market Committee has agreed to establish similar temporary swap arrangements with these five central banks to provide liquidity in any of their currencies if necessary. Further details on the revised arrangements will be available shortly. 
 
 U.S. financial institutions currently do not face difficulty obtaining liquidity in short-term funding markets. However, were conditions to deteriorate, the Federal Reserve has a range of tools available to provide an effective liquidity backstop for such institutions and is prepared to use these tools as needed to support financial stability and to promote the extension of credit to U.S. households and businesses. 
 
 Information on Related Actions Being Taken by Other Central Banks 
 
 Information on the actions to be taken by other central banks is available on the following websites: 
 
 Bank of Canada 
 
 Bank of England 
 
 Bank of Japan (PDF) 
 
 European Central Bank 
 
 Swiss National Bank (PDF) 
 
 Frequently Asked Questions: U.S. Dollar and Foreign Currency Liquidity Swaps 
 
 For media inquiries, call 202-452-2955. ||||| The world's major central banks made it easier Wednesday for banks to get dollars if they need them, a coordinated move to ease the strains on the global financial system. Stock markets rose sharply on the move. 
 
 The European Central Bank, U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland are all taking part in the operation, which is designed to "enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system." 
 
 The European Central Bank said in a statement the central banks were making it cheaper for banks to get U.S. dollar liquidity when they need it, starting next Monday. They are also taking steps to ensure banks can get ready money in any currency if market conditions warrant by establishing a temporary network of reciprocal swap lines. 
 
 The ECB said the central banks have agreed to reduce the cost of temporary dollar loans to banks _ called liquidity swaps _ by a half percentage point. The new, lower rate will be applied to all central bank operations starting on Monday. 
 
 Stocks surged following the news. Germany's DAX was trading 4 percent higher as were Dow futures in New York. 
 
 The financial system has been showing signs of entering another credit crunch like the one in 2008 as Europe's debt crisis has shown alarming signs of spreading. The possibility that one or more European governments might default on debt have raised fears of a shock to the global financial system that would lead to severe losses for banks and a contraction in lending. 
 
 Fears of more financial turmoil in Europe have already left some European banks dependent on central bank loans to fund their daily operations. Other banks are wary of lending to them for fear of not getting paid back. 
 
 Such constraints on interbank lending can hurt the wider economy by making less money available to lend to businesses. ||||| The world's major central banks unleashed coordinated action Wednesday to ease the increasing strains on the global financial system, a move that sent stock markets up sharply. 
 
 The European Central Bank, U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland are all taking part in the operation, which is designed to "enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system." 
 
 The ECB said in a statement the banks are making it cheaper for banks to get U.S. dollar liquidity when they need it, starting next Monday. They are also taking steps to ensure banks can get ready money in any currency if market conditions warrant. 
 
 Stocks surged following the news. Germany's DAX was trading 4 percent higher as were Dow futures in New York. 
 
 The financial system has been showing signs of entering another credit crunch as Europe's debt crisis has shown alarming signs of spreading. ||||| Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 WASHINGTON — Concerned about waning economic growth, central banks in Europe and China announced measures Thursday to increase borrowing and spending by businesses and consumers, a response that was all the more striking because it was uncoordinated. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Three major central banks announced policy changes in the space of an hour. China’s central bank unexpectedly cut regulated bank lending rates for the second time in four weeks. The European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.75 percent, the lowest level in its 14-year history. And the Bank of England announced it would expand its holdings of government bonds by about 15 percent. 
 
 The Federal Reserve announced two weeks ago that it would extend its own bond-buying program until the end of the year. 
 
 The actions once again cast central bankers in the role of primary responders to the global economic malaise, aiming at the same basic goal that they have tried to hit repeatedly over the last six years: encouraging people and businesses to borrow and spend and take greater risks with their investments. 
 
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 But Europe is mired in an economic recession and a political crisis. The United States is faring somewhat better in both respects, but hardly booming. China is suffering what its government has begun to describe as a sharp economic slowdown. And policy makers have not yet succeeded in restoring public confidence that better days are coming. 
 
 The latest round of modest measures — a nibble at interest rates, a few forkfuls of bonds — are unlikely to change that record, instead stoking the debate between those demanding stronger action and those convinced that central banks have done all they should. 
 
 Reaction to the new measures was subdued. Analysts used phrases like “helpful at the margins” and “it doesn’t hurt.” European stock markets rose in an initial burst of pleasure, then receded. American stock indexes fell early, then recovered their losses. 
 
 “These are not big steps; I would not expect them to have a huge effect, but I think they move in the right direction,” said Donald Kohn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as the Fed’s vice chairman from 2006 to 2010. “I think it’s certainly the case that monetary policy can’t cure all the world’s ills, but I think it can do some good, and the central banks of the world are doing what they can.” 
 
 The Bank for International Settlements, an umbrella group for central banks, cautioned in its annual report last month that central banks could not solve the structural problems that are plaguing Europe and impeding growth. 
 
 Indeed, it said that monetary stimulus “can buy time, but may actually make it easier to waste that time, thus possibly delaying the return to a self-sustaining recovery,” by making it easier to postpone changes in fiscal policy. 
 
 The Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and his European counterparts have tried repeatedly to shift the burden of economic policy making to elected officials, urging them to bolster short-term growth by addressing long-term problems like the level of public debt and the cost of social programs. But countries have made little progress on those issues, and Thursday was the latest in a lengthening series of moments in which the central bankers blinked, sighed and put just a little more sugar in the bowl. 
 
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 The range of actions announced Thursday highlighted how far they have wandered from the traditional tools of central banking. Policy makers increasingly are selecting among options that are theoretically powerful but largely unproved, and officials in London and Frankfurt announced contrasting choices about the best approach to improve their respective economies. 
 
 The European Central Bank announced a reduction in its benchmark interest rate to 0.75 percent from 1 percent, which was once regarded as an effective minimum. The bank’s president, Mario Draghi, said he was optimistic about the long-term benefits of steps announced last week by European leaders to bolster the euro zone. But for now, he said, economic problems continued to deepen. 
 
 "We see now a weakening basically of growth in the whole of the euro area, including the country or the countries that had not experienced that before,” Mr. Draghi said at a news conference after Thursday’s announcement. 
 
 The Bank of England, which already had reduced its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in 2009 and has kept it there ever since, chose to pull on a different lever. It said Thursday in London that it would add government securities worth £50 billion ($78 billion) to its existing portfolio of £325 billion ($508 billion) in its latest effort to jolt the struggling British economy out of a double-dip recession. 
 
 The policy, often described as quantitative easing, works to lower borrowing costs by reducing the supply of debt available to investors, pushing them to accept lower interest rates and to shift money into riskier assets. 
 
 George Buckley, chief British economist at Deutsche Bank in London, said the impact of the new asset purchases could increase gross domestic product by 0.5 percentage points. “This is helpful at the margins, but the big issue is what happens to the European economy as that will be transmitted across the English Channel,” Mr. Buckley said. “Fifty billion pounds in quantitative easing is not going to solve the problems. All the Bank of England can hope to do is to offset some of the headwinds from Europe.” 
 
 The Chinese central bank has more room to maneuver than its Western counterparts, because interest rates remain relatively high, and because it can set lending rates directly, rather than exerting only indirect influence. It announced a cut in the regulated rate for one-year bank loans by 0.31 percentage points, to 6 percent. And it said banks could charge as little as 70 percent of that rate to selected customers; the minimum had stood at 90 percent until last month, when it was reduced to 80 percent. 
 
 It provided no explanation for its moves, which take effect Friday morning. But Chinese policy makers have probably received at least a rough preview of the nation’s second-quarter economic statistics scheduled for release next week. Most economists now expect those figures to show considerably weaker growth, at least compared with China’s vigorous expansion over most of the last three decades. 
 
 “This aggressive policy action reflects, in our view, a deepening concern by policy makers that the economy has yet to find a bottom,” Nick Chamie, an economist at RBC Dominion Securities, wrote in a research note.
– Central banks around the world plan to ease the strain on the global financial system by taking coordinated action to prevent a lack of liquidity, they announced in a statement this morning—news that sent stock futures soaring more than 250 points. The Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank join the Fed in the moves, which the AP reports will, as of next Monday, "reduce the cost of temporary dollar loans to banks—called liquidity swaps—by a half percentage point." NPR explains that'll make it easier for financial institutions to get cash, which they'll hopefully then lend at reduced interest rates. The AP reports that these central banks are also working to shore up banks' ability to ready money in any currency if market conditions warrant, though "at present, there is no need to offer liquidity in non-domestic currencies," the Fed's statement noted. "The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity," explained the Fed.