Currency swap with U.S. to help stabilize financial market: BOK chief

SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Yonhap) -- A currency swap deal between the United States and South Korea will help ease the dollar shortage of local lenders and stabilize the local financial market, the head of Seoul's central bank said Thursday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve said announced Wednesday that it will sign a currency
swap arrangement of up to US$30 billion each with the central banks of South
Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Singapore, to help improve liquidity conditions in the
global financial markets and to mitigate the spread of difficulties in obtaining
U.S. dollar funding in fundamentally sound and well-managed economies.
"The currency swap deal with the U.S. Fed will help stabilize the local financial
market," Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Seong-tae told reporters. "The swap deal
will also contribute to stabilizing the currency market."
Despite ample foreign reserves of more than $240 billion, South Korea's currency
has plummeted to a 10-year low against the U.S. dollar as foreign investors
continued to pull a huge amount of money out of local stocks amid concerns that
local banks may face difficulty repaying short-term foreign debts.