The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announced Tuesday that it is extending several of its new liquidity initiatives through the spring.

Three of the Fed’s new liquidity facilities: the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Fund Liquidity Facility, and the Term Securities Lending Facility; will now operate until April 30, 2009. These facilities had previously been authorized through Jan. 30, 2009. The Fed said that the extension is due to “continuing strains in financial markets.”

The PDCF provides discount window loans to primary dealers. The AMLF provides loans to depository institutions to purchase asset-backed commercial paper from money market mutual funds. And, under the TSLF, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York auctions term loans of Treasury securities to primary dealers.

The Fed also noted that the extension for these facilities is consistent with the term authorized for several other liquidity-related facilities: the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, the Money Market Investor Funding Facility, and the temporary reciprocal currency arrangements (swap lines) with 14 other central banks.

IE