WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that a number of allies in the Gulf region and in Asia have requested currency swap lines from the United States to help deal with energy shocks and other fallout from the Middle East war.
Bessent told U.S. senators that both the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates would benefit from a proposed swap line that President Donald Trump said he was considering on Tuesday.
Bessent did not name the countries making such requests, but told a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee budget hearing that such facilities would help stabilize financial markets amid turmoil from the Middle East war.
“And swap lines, whether it’s from the Federal Reserve or the Treasury, are to maintain order in the dollar funding markets and to prevent the sale of the U.S. assets in a disorderly way,” Bessent said. “So, the swap line would benefit both the UAE and the U.S., and as I said, numerous other countries, including some of our Asian allies, have also requested them.”
(Reporting by David Lawder, Editing by Franklin Paul and Andrea Ricci)