$1786m Credit For Britain

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31780, 10 September 1968, Page 17

$1786m Credit For Britain

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyriohtt

BASLE, September 9.

Western central bankers have completed arrangements for a sl7B6in stand-by credit for Britain.

After a four-hour session at the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Dr Carl Blessing, president of the West German Federal Bank, said: “The decision is to all intents and purposes taken. There remains only the formal approval of the board of the 8.1.5.” The credit, agreed In principle in July, will be used by Britain to guarantee part of the reserves held in London by sterling area countries, in exchange for a pledge that they will not diversify the rest of their reserves into other currencies. At yesterday’s meeting, Sir Leslie O’Brien, Governor of the Bank of England, is understood to have told his colleagues from Western Europe the United States, Canada and Japan, that no major problems remain between Britain and her sterling partners. Since July British Treasury teams have been touring the sterling area to explain how the guarantees would work. The guarantee will partly secure holdings against the risk of a second devaluation of the pound, and sterling area countries will voluntarily freeze the remainder of their holdings, informed sources said. However, a certain amount of withdrawals are expected Killed In Helicopter.—A South Vietnamese BrigadierGeneral, an American colonel and four other persons were killed yesterday when North Vietnamese gunner shot down their helicopter.—Saigon, September 9.

from some nations, and Britain is likely to draw on the stand-by soon, they added. All drawings in the line of credit will be channelled through the 8.1 S., giving it the nature of a “super central bank” for sterling, supplanting part of the Bank of England’s role.