HKMA ext black and white wedding

Nov. 7, 2008 (China Knowledge) - The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city's de factor central bank, announce on Thursday it will extend collateralized lending to local banks to three months from one month and charge interest rates at lower interbank rate, in an effort to encourage banks to provide loans to support industries in the territory, the South China Morning Post reported.

HKMA Chief Joseph Yam Chi-kwong said those moves are designated to increase liquidity and help activity in 3-month interbank lending return to its normal level, adding market liquidity was still tight in longer term money despite recent injection.

HKAM pumped HK$3.875 billion into the territory's banking system late on Wednesday, the fourth intervention by the authority since last Friday, in a bid to peg back a rise in the Hong Kong dollar and keep it within official trading limits against the U.S. dollar.

Yam revealed that the recent moves had dragged the one-month interbank rate to below 2% and 3-month interbank rate to below 3%.

He iterated that HKMA aims to provide banks and Hong Kong with a looser liquidity environment, hoping banks can help out industries by making it easier to borrow money.