Euro back from the brink on ECB dollar funding ops

(Reuters) - The euro jumped against the dollar after the European Central Bank said it would, alongside other major central banks, re-launch three-month dollar liquidity operations in the fourth quarter to ease funding squeeze for European banks.

The move was in coordination with the U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, and Swiss National Bank.

"This provision of dollar liquidity to European banks confirms our view that policymakers are not asleep and have learned lessons from the post-Lehman credit tightening that caused unwanted bank de-leveraging," said Dan Dorrow, head of FX research at Faros Trading in Stamford, Connecticut.

The euro had already strengthened earlier, bolstered by fresh expressions of support for Greece from Germany and France. It remained vulnerable though amid persistent fears of a Greek default.

The euro surged to session highs against the dollar at $1.39370 following the ECB news and was last at $1.38760, which was still up nearly 1.0 percent.

The dollar, meanwhile, rose against the yen and hit session highs, with traders citing market talk that the Bank of Japan was checking currency rates.

The BoJ was calling banks, traders said, asking at what rate dollar/yen is trading, which is intended to put market participants on alert for possible intervention.

The dollar surged to 77.335 yen as a result and was last at 76.792 up 0.1 percent.