The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, said Wednesday that it has signed currency swap agreements with Bank Negara Malaysia, more than doubling the scale of a 2009 bilateral swap deal that has since expired.

The new currency swap agreement allows the two central banks to swap 180 billion yuan/90 billion ringgit (about 28.56 billion U.S. dollars) over the course of three years with an option to continue the agreement with the approval of both sides, the PBOC said in a statement on its website.

The expired 2009 agreement set the currency swap quota at 80 billion yuan/40 billion ringgit.

Both sides believe the extension will help maintain regional financial stability and facilitate bilateral trade and investment between China and Malaysia, according to the PBOC statement.

Since the onset of the global financial crisis in late 2008, China has signed currency swap agreements totaling 1.3 trillion yuan with 15 countries and regions, including the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Belarus and Argentina, to reduce the use of the U.S. dollar in bilateral trade settlement and investment.

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