IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wrk/warwec/1522.html

Foreign Exchange Interventions and Intermediary Constraints

Author

Listed:
  • Ferreira, Alex

    (University of São Paulo)

  • Mullen, Rory

    (Warwick Business School)

  • Ricco, Giovanni

    (École Polytechnique, University of Warwick, OFCE & CEPR)

  • Viswanath-Natraj, Ganesh

    (Warwick Business School)

  • Wang, Zijie

    (Warwick Business School)

Abstract

We study the impact of foreign exchange interventions during periods of tight credit constraints. Expanding on the Gabaix and Maggiori (2015) model, we predict that long-lived spot interventions have larger effects on exchange rates than shortlived swaps, unanticipated interventions are more impactful, and tighter credit constraints amplify effects. Using high-frequency data on Brazilian Central Bank interventions from 1999 to 2023, we find that unanticipated spot sales of USD reserves lead to significant domestic currency appreciation and reduced covered interest parity deviations. Spot interventions outperform swaps, especially when global intermediaries are constrained, and enhance market efficiency by lowering USD borrowing costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferreira, Alex & Mullen, Rory & Ricco, Giovanni & Viswanath-Natraj, Ganesh & Wang, Zijie, 2024. "Foreign Exchange Interventions and Intermediary Constraints," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1522, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:1522
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/workingpapers/2024/twerp_1522-_ricco.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Naef, Alain, 2024. "Blowing against the Wind? a narrative approach to central Bank foreign exchange intervention," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    2. Arango-Lozano, Lucía & Menkhoff, Lukas & Rodríguez-Novoa, Daniela & Villamizar-Villegas, Mauricio, 2024. "The effectiveness of FX interventions: A meta-analysis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Mark P. Taylor & Lucio Sarno, 2001. "Official Intervention in the Foreign Exchange Market: Is It Effective and, If So, How Does It Work?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 839-868, September.
    4. Jeanne, Olivier & Sandri, Damiano, 2020. "Optimal reserves in financially closed economies," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    5. Lars E.O. Svensson, 1994. "Estimating and Interpreting Forward Interest Rates: Sweden 1992 - 1994," NBER Working Papers 4871, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Vitale, Paolo, 2006. "A Critical Appraisal of Recent Developments in the Analysis of Foreign Exchange Intervention," CEPR Discussion Papers 5729, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Naef, Alain, 2026. "Foreign Exchange Intervention: Identification and Evidence," SocArXiv wp7bg_v1, Center for Open Science.
    2. Cezar, Rafael & Monnet, Eric, 2023. "Capital controls and foreign reserves against external shocks: Combined or alone?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Alain Naef & Jacob P. Weber, 2023. "How Powerful Is Unannounced, Sterilized Foreign Exchange Intervention?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(5), pages 1307-1319, August.
    4. Alex Ferreira & Arie Gozluklu & João Mainente, 2026. "Central Bank Reserves and Currency Volatility," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 633-673, April.
    5. Eduardo Levy-Yeyati & Juan Francisco Gómez, 2022. "Leaning-Against-the-Wind Intervention and the “Carry-Trade” View of the Cost of Reserves," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 853-877, November.
    6. Freddy A. Pinzón-Puerto & Mauricio Villamizar-Villegas, 2023. "Do Actions Speak Louder than Words? A Foreign Exchange Intervention Analysis," Borradores de Economia 1223, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    7. Guyot, Opale & Montgomery, Heather A., 2025. "Against the wind or with it? The intraday and daily dynamics of yen interventions," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Jorge Arenas & Stephany Griffith-Jones, 2023. "Effectiveness of Foreign Exchange Interventions: Evidence and Lessons from Chile," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 983, Central Bank of Chile.
    9. Eduardo Levy-Yeyati & Juan Francisco Gómez, 2020. "The Cost of Holding Foreign Exchange Reserves," Springer Books, in: Jacob Bjorheim (ed.), Asset Management at Central Banks and Monetary Authorities, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 91-110, Springer.
    10. George, Keerthana Sunny & Ramachandran, M., 2025. "Making waves in a calm sea: The dual role of uncertainty and reserve adequacy in FX interventions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PG).
    11. Naef, Alain, 2024. "Blowing against the Wind? a narrative approach to central Bank foreign exchange intervention," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    12. Eduardo Levy Yeyati, 2019. "The Cost of Holding Foreign Exchange Reserves," CID Working Papers 353, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    13. Beine, Michel & Bernal, Oscar & Gnabo, Jean-Yves & Lecourt, Christelle, 2009. "Intervention policy of the BoJ: A unified approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 904-913, May.
    14. Pinzon-Puerto, Freddy & Villamizar-Villegas, Mauricio, 2025. "Foreign exchange intervention: A comparative analysis of announcements versus trades," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    15. repec:osf:socarx:bfehz_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Alain Naef, 2021. "Dirty float or clean intervention? The Bank of England in the foreign exchange market," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 25(1), pages 180-201.
    17. Alain Naef & Jacob P. Weber, 2021. "Regional How Powerful is Unannounced, Sterilized Foreign Exchange Intervention?," Working papers 834, Banque de France.
    18. Pontines, Victor & Luvsannyam, Davaajargal & Atarbaatar, Enkhjin & Munkhtsetseg, Ulziikhutag, 2021. "The effectiveness of currency intervention: Evidence from Mongolia," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. Hu, Xiaolu & Shi, Jing & Wang, Lafang & Yu, Jing, 2020. "Foreign ownership in Chinese credit ratings industry: Information revelation or certification?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    20. Sergeyev, Dmitriy & Iovino, Luigi, 2018. "Central Bank Balance Sheet Policies Without Rational Expectations," CEPR Discussion Papers 13100, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    21. Esteban Méndez-Chacón & Diana Van Patten, 2022. "Voting on a Trade Agreement: Firm Networks and Attitudes Toward Openness," Documentos de Trabajo 2204, Banco Central de Costa Rica.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:1522. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sheila Kiggins (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dewaruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.