S'pore and RP to sign money pact

S'pore and RP to sign money pact

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Singapore and the Philippines will sign a currency repurchase agreement on Monday as part of efforts to maintain stability in their foreign exchange markets, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said.

The agreement, to be signed in Singapore, will be the city- state's third such pact, an MAS spokesman told Reuters Wednesday.

The MAS, Singapore's de facto central bank, signed similar accords with Indonesia and Thailand last year, the spokesman said. He declined to provide further details about the latest agreement.

Manila's Central Bank Governor, Gabriel Singson, said last week the Philippines would be signing dollar repurchase agreements with Indonesia and Singapore.

The Philippines has already entered similar accords with the central monetary authorities of Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

The agreements increase the ability of central banks to intervene in foreign exchange markets by giving them additional sources of liquidity to draw on to curb speculative attacks on their own currencies.

Singapore's Finance Minister Richard Hu told The Straits Times in an interview published on Tuesday that recent agreements among southeast Asian central banks would send a useful signal to the market.

Hu said the agreements would show the widening pool of credit available to maintain currency stability in the region.

Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand signed a repurchase agreement last November, allowing them to borrow U.S. Treasury securities from each other as collateral for funds to fight speculative moves against their currencies.