Japan and France offered a helping hand to their banks on Tuesday and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prepared to intervene in financial trouble spots in several corners of the globe.
Despite tentative signs banks and investors were beginning to regain confidence, the IMF was poised to help Pakistan, Iceland, Ukraine and others prevent systemic meltdowns.
Shares in France's top banks rose sharply after the French government said it would lend 10.5 billion euros ($14.12 billion) to boost their capital reserves.
Paris last week earmarked 360 billion euros as part of an international effort to help banks survive the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression almost 80 years ago.
In Japan, Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said the country's big banks should also be entitled to injections of public funds if needed, as the government considered recasting a law that had been aimed mainly at recapitalising regional banks to boost financing to credit-starved small firms.
"When considering the need to facilitate lending to small firms, I can't see any reason why big banks should be discriminated against," Yosano told a news conference.
Japanese banks have avoided risky credit products but sharp share price falls in recent weeks have hit their balance sheets.
Governments around the world have already promised about $3.3 trillion — about equal to the economic output of Germany — to guarantee bank deposits and bank-to-bank lending, and in some cases have taken stakes in banks swamped with bad assets.
There are some signs their efforts are paying dividends.
The cost of dollar funding on Asian money markets dropped further on Tuesday — overnight dollar deposits fell to 1-1.25 percent in Jakarta from 1.5-1.75 on Monday.
Overnight rates, which hit 10 percent after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, have fallen after central banks pumped cash into money markets and cut rates.
But the crisis will not conclusively be over until central bank and government support is removed and bank-to-bank lending — frozen for much of the last year by uncertainty over which groups faced financial disaster — is flowing freely again.
In the meantime, the world teeters on the edge of recession.
IMF TO ACT
A stark reminder of the breadth of the crisis came from a Financial Times report that Pakistan was in talks to obtain up to $15 billion in rescue money from the International Monetary Fund and other bodies.
The scale of support reflects international anxiety that Pakistan, considered vital to the "war on terror", is at risk of being destabilised and needs a massive cash infusion to stabilise its economy and pay for necessary imports.
Iceland, driven close to bankruptcy as frozen credit markets caused its banks to fail, is still deciding whether to take IMF money although the FT reported it was set to receive a $6 billion IMF-led rescue package soon.
Ukraine is also in talks with the IMF over a loan of up to $14 billion to stabilise its financial system and the Fund is ready to help in Hungary, Turkey and Serbia.
World leaders will hold a summit after the Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election to set "principles of reform" needed to fix the financial system. The role of the IMF as global financial guardian is likely to be prominent on that agenda.
STOCKS UP, VIEWS DIFFER
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares rose 0.8 percent, extending their winning streak to a third day, as investors cheered the French move to bolster its banks.
Shares on Wall Street HAD gained after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke backed more government spending to help the economy, and Japanese stocks rose on Tuesday.
In contrast to the market mood, South Korea President Lee Myung-bak said a looming global recession could swamp measures taken to bolster its heavily indebted banking system.
"The overall situation is more serious than the 1997 (Asian financial) crisis. Back then it was an Asian crisis but today the entire world economy is at risk," Lee was quoted as saying by presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.
Others were more upbeat.
European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark said more "accidents" might occur in the global financial system but government actions had left Europe better placed to cope.
The head of Australia's central bank said an sharp interest rate cut this month and fiscal stimulus should buoy the economy.
"The likelihood of a global catastrophe has in fact declined over the past couple of weeks," said Glenn Stevens, Australia's central bank governor.
