DUBAI: The UAE central bank yesterday set the spot and forward exchange rates for its new swap facilities with maturities ranging from one-week to 12 months.

Interbank rates eased slightly after the central bank said on Wednesday it would strive to help banks meet liquidity needs by offering UAE dirham-US dollar swap facilities, its latest effort to address a global credit crisis.

The three-month Emirates Interbank Offered Rate fell to 4.3625pc yesterday from 4.425pc a day earlier.

The central bank said it would buy US dollars from banks at the fixed rate of 3.6720 per dollar for all contracts and cited forward rates ranging from 3.6729 for the one-week swap facility and 3.7278 for 12 months.

Swaps are available for time periods of one week, one month, two months, three months, six months, nine months and 12 months.

Bankers said the new swap agreements would help banks meet liquidity needs if funds were not available on the interbank market. The UAE central bank and finance ministry have launched a 120 billion dirhams ($32.67bn) emergency funding to help banks.