The Bank and the People's Bank of China are close to signing a three-year currency swap arrangement, governor Sir Mervyn King said.

BBC: UK and China poised for currency swap deal

Regardless of the amount of difficulty involved, the big four emerging markets plus South Africa said earlier this week they were considering setting up a foreign-exchange reserve pool and a currency-swap arrangement in an effort to avoid any credit crisis stemming from the advanced economies.

FORBES: China's Central Bank Willing To Share $3 Trillion