Several treasury executives told ET that the RBI conducted multiple tranches of short-term ‘sell-buy’ swaps in the foreign exchange market for a cumulative amount of around $8 billion over the last few days. The central bank has not conducted these transactions for such a magnitude for at least three months prior to this, currency market players said.
The move also comes at a time when hardening crude oil prices and elevated US market rates have resulted in the rupee hovering near its lifetime lows versus the dollar — although the depreciation in the Indian unit has been much milder than last year.
“From the forex traders we hear that they (the RBI) are doing sell-buy swaps. I think they can use those tools to manage (liquidity),” said Shailendra Jhingan, managing director and CEO of ICICI Securities Primary Dealership.
A sell-buy swap entails selling dollars and then immediately contracting to purchase them at a later date. Sales of US dollars by the RBI drain out rupee liquidity from the banking system. The RBI has been taking steps to bring down surplus liquidity in the banking system as excess funds with lenders pose inflationary risks.
Traders said that on September 7, the RBI carried out sell-buy swaps in the forwards market with the contracts maturing between September 11 and 15 for around $2 billion. On September 4, the central bank carried out sellbuy swaps maturing September 6-8 for a quantum of $4-6 billion, they said.
