The Swiss National Bank will offer up to US$6 billion (€3.8 billion) in short term credit to ease strains in jittery financial markets, the central bank said Friday.

SNB's move will come in an auction of so-called repo loans, or repurchase agreements, to renew a similar measure of US$6 billion made last month in concert with the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada.

"The bases for these tenders were developed jointly with other central banks, and we are still drawing these dollars from the Fed, but by now, not each individual offering is discussed among the central banks," said Werner Abed, spokesman for the SNB. It is the fourth in a series of auctions by the SNB since December.

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The new 28-day offer will be made on Tuesday and renew the previous offer due to expire April 24, the central bank said. Under repo loans banks bid for the chance to borrow and put up securities as collateral in order to get ready cash to operate.

The European Central Bank auctioned US$15 billion (€9.6 billion) to European banks earlier this month in coordination with a US$50 billion auction (almost €32 billion) by the U.S. Federal Reserve. It was the ninth in a series of auctions by the Washington-based Federal Reserve that began in December and have so far pumped US$310 billion (€197 billion) into the U.S. banking system.

A summary of the SNB's auction results on Tuesday will be announced at the same time as the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank will publish their auction results.

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