国际英语新闻：U.S. Fed to auction another $100 bln to banks in April

 WASHINGTON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Federal Reserve will auction another 100 billion dollars in April, continuing its efforts to deal with the effects of a credit crisis, the U.S. central bank announced Friday.

    Two auctions will be held, on April 7 and 21 respectively, and each offers 50 billion dollars, the Fed said in a press release.

    The Fed has held eight auctions so far aimed at injecting more money into the banking system since mid-December last year, when it established its Term Auction Facility to deliver short-term funds to banks that are in need of liquidity.

    Two auctions each in December, January, February and March provided a total of 260 billion dollars in extra reserves through short-term loans to cash-strapped banks.

    The Fed started with auctions of 20 billion dollars, then pushed the level to 30 billion dollars, and in early March raised the auction amount to 50 billion dollars as the credit shortage grew more severe.

    Although the Fed had taken actions such as rate cuts to add liquidity to the banking system, commercial banks had avoided borrowing money from the central bank through its discount window, which makes loans to banks, out of concern that investors would see the move as an indication of the banks' underlying financial problems.

    In announcing the move to 50 billion dollars earlier this month, the Fed said it would continue the auctions "for at least the next six months unless evolving market conditions clearly indicate that such auctions are no longer necessary."