Four of the world’s leading central banks on Thursday announced plans to end the emergency supply of long-term dollar loans in Europe and scale back the provision of such finance in the US.

However, at the same time the Federal Reserve signalled it is considering making the Term Auction Facility through which it provides the dollar loans a regular feature of its liquidity management, even after the crisis is over. This facility was invented in the early stages of the crisis, in December 2007.