MAS, Bank Indonesia extend US$10b bilateral financial arrangement for another year

The bilateral financial arrangement was first established in November 2018 to enable both central banks to access foreign currency liquidity from each other. PHOTOS: ST FILE, REUTERS

SINGAPORE - The Monetary Authority of Singapore and Bank Indonesia on Tuesday (Nov 5) announced the extension of a US$10 billion (S$13.59 billion) bilateral financial arrangement for another year.

The extension follows an earlier agreement between Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Singapore-Indonesia Leaders' Retreat on Oct 8 to extend the arrangement for another year.

The bilateral financial arrangement was first established in November 2018 to enable both central banks to access foreign currency liquidity from each other, if needed, to preserve monetary and financial stability.

The arrangement comprises two agreements. One is a local currency bilateral swap agreement that allows for the exchange of local currencies between the central banks of up to $9.5 billion or 100 trillion rupiah.

The other is a bilateral repo agreement of US$3 billion that allows for repurchase transactions between the two central banks to obtain US dollar cash using government bonds of major countries as collateral. These include US treasuries as well as Japanese and German government bonds.

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