The British government said Wednesday it would partly nationalize major banks, with taxpayers taking a share stake in a bid to shore up a financial sector that many investors feared could not survive the global turmoil without government help.
"This is not a time for conventional thinking or outdated dogma but for the fresh and innovative intervention that gets to the heart of the problem," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a news conference.
A half hour before markets opened Wednesday, the Treasury said it would be investing up to 50 billion pounds ($87.5 billion) in exchange for preference shares in eight of the county's largest banks and building societies: Abbey National PLC, Barclays PLC, HBOS PLC, HSBC Bank PLC, Lloyds TSB Bank...