The Saudi central bank placed about 50 billion riyals ($13 billion) as time deposits with commercial lenders, Bloomberg reported on Sunday citing people familiar with the matter.

The central bank, known as SAMA, is seeking to ease the worst liquidity crunch in over a decade, it added.

The intervention started just before the US Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hike this month and consisted of money provided to banks at a discount to the three-month Saudi Interbank Offered Rate, or Saibor, used as a benchmark to price loans, the report added.

Liquidity conditions as measured by Saibor are the tightest since late 2008, when the price of crude collapsed below $40 a barrel.

(Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)

brinda.darasha@lseg.com