FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank on Tuesday lent euro zone banks $4.12 billion in a newly created daily tender aimed at easing stress in the U.S. dollar funding market, a big increase from $20 million a day earlier.
The world's biggest central banks agreed last week to conduct one-week dollar liquidity operation every day at least through the end of April, all in the hope of mitigating the strain on the supply of credit to households and businesses.
The ECB was already offering such a facility but only once a week. The last tender on Wednesday attracted demand of $36.27 billion.
The ECB is also offering an 84-day dollar facility once a week in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Reserve.