The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies on Friday. The dollar continued rising versus the Japanese yen due to the easing monetary policy but retreated against the euro as the European Central Bank said banks would start repaying loans.

The euro rose to a 11-month high against the dollar after the ECB said 278 banks in the area decided to repay 137 billion euros of three-year crisis loans next week at the earliest. The amount exceeded traders' expectations for repayment of 100 billion euros.

Moreover, a survey indicating improvement in business confidence in euroz-one's largest economy Germany also supported the euro. The report showed German business confidence improved for a third straight month in January.

The dollar kept strengthening against the yen on Friday. Japan' s Deputy Economy Minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura was quoted by reports as saying that the yen's decline is not over and a dollar/ yen level of 100 would not be a concern.

Japan's central bank Tuesday decided to double the inflation target to 2 percent and purchase government bonds and other assets without setting a deadline starting from 2014.

On the economic front, sales volume of new single-family houses in the U.S. unexpectedly slipped in December from the prior month, but were still much higher than a year earlier, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Friday.

In late New York trading, the euro climbed to 1.3465 dollars from 1.3372 dollars of the previous session and the British pound rose to 1.5800 from 1.5790 dollars.

The dollar dropped to 0.9263 Swiss francs from 0.9282 and went up to 1.0078 Canadian dollars from 1.0030. The dollar bought 91.04 Japanese yen, higher than 89.95 in the previous session.