Britain bails out banks, Hong Kong slashes rates

Britain announced plans to inject up to 50 billion pounds ($87.2 billion) into its biggest retail banks on Wednesday and Hong Kong slashed interest rates to try to stem the global financial crisis.

British finance minister Alistair Darling said he wanted to reduce the "fear factor" in the banking system. In an effort to kickstart stalled money markets, the Bank of England will offer at least 200 billion pounds in short-term lending.

Hong Kong followed Australia's lead in slicing a full point off interest rates as pressure grew for a coordinated, global monetary policy response to the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Shares in Tokyo plunged more than nine percent, the biggest decline since the 1987 stock market crash, on growing fears that the chaos in credit markets will foster a global economic recession.

European shares fell 4 percent in early trade. U.S. stocks had tumbled for a fifth straight session on Tuesday, completing a record five-day point loss.

Britain's offer to use public money to take stakes in some of its best known high street banks follows a slump in which some have lost nearly half their value on the stock market amid investor fears they could collapse.

"Extraordinary times call for bold and far-reaching solutions," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in comments released by his press office.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday the U.S. economy was being battered by a financial crisis of "historic dimension" and that the risk for inflation has eased with the falling prices for oil and other commodities.

His comments were seen as paving the way for a deep cut in U.S. rates, possibly before the Fed's end-of-month meeting.

The Bank of England will deliver its latest interest rate decision on Thursday and Darling dropped a heavy hint he would welcome a rate cut.

"Let me remind you of the remit … yes it's to target the government's inflation target, but it's also to support the government's wider objectives of economic stability," he told BBC radio.