FED to auction 60 Billion dollars in February!

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Federal Reserve said Friday it would auction a total of 60 billion dollars in February in two separate transactions to pump liquidity into the stressed banking system.

The Fed will offer 28-day credit of 30 billion dollars in both auctions, to be held February 11 and February 25.

They will be the fifth and sixth auctions under the new Term Auction Facility program launched in December and designed to relieve elevated pressure in the short-term, inter-bank funding market.

The size of the minimum bid for the new auctions will be reduced to five million dollars, from 10 million in the prior auctions.

The Fed said Tuesday it intends to conduct biweekly auctions for as long as necessary to provide short-term liquidity to banks, "to facilitate participation by smaller institutions," the central bank said in a statement.

source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gaAsOCkfEgQRTxKXqqblmEccRYVA