The world’s leading central banks have agreed to provide additional dollar loans to European commercial banks that have found it harder to borrow because of their exposure to indebted European governments.
The European Central Bank said Thursday it will make three-month dollar loans to eurozone banks in coordination with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank. It says the new loans are meant to ensure that the commercial banks have enough access to U.S. currency through the end of this year.
The announcement appeared to give a boost to European bank shares and major European stock indexes. The Frankfurt DAX index and the Paris CAC-40 index surged about 4 percent at one point, while London’s FTSE-100 index rose about 2.5 percent.