The action was taken in November 2011 as a response to growing strains in U.S. dollar financial markets. Those central banks agreed to lower the pricing on the existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points so that the new rate would be the U.S. dollar overnight index swap rate plus 50 basis points.
As a contingency measure, moreover, these central banks agreed to establish temporary bilateral liquidity swap arrangements so that liquidity could be provided in each jurisdiction in any of their currencies if necessitated by market conditions.