The Federal Reserve announced Friday that it is increasing the amount of money available to banks through the new auction process it created to ease the nation’s severe credit squeeze. The Fed again pledged to continue the auctions “for as long as necessary.”

The Fed said that it will increase the amount offered at each of the next two auctions from $20 billion to $30 billion, a 50 percent jump. Those two auctions will be Jan. 14 and Jan. 28.

The Fed announcement indicated that the auction process it began last month has been successful in providing a source of loans for cash-strapped banks.