Foreign central banks' agency holdings fall-Fed

NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Foreign central banks' holdings of U.S. agency securities at the Federal Reserve fell again on concerns about the extent of government backing on these investments, Fed data released on Thursday showed.

Their holdings of agency securities fell by $8.28 billion in the week ended Oct 22 to $917.89 billion, following a $18.64 billion decline in the previous week.

This brought the cumulative drop in agency holdings among overseas central banks to $51.36 billion in three weeks.

A federal measure to guarantee short-term bonds issued by banks has been perceived as putting them on a higher credit standing than securities issued by from mortgage agencies Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System.

In September, the government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a bid to stabilize the faltering housing and financial markets.

Meanwhile, overseas central banks' holdings of U.S. Treasuries at the Fed in the week grew $12.57 billion to $1.567 trillion, following a $16.91 billion jump in the previous week.

The Fed's combined custody of Treasury and agency holdings for overseas central banks rose $4.29 billion to $2.485 trillion in the latest week.

Overseas central banks, particularly those in Asia, have been huge buyers of U.S. debt in recent years, and own over a quarter of marketable Treasuries.

The full Fed report can be found on:

here

(Reporting by Richard Leong, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)