Bank lifelines ease global financial crisis fears

Rescue plan: A Credit Suisse branch illuminated at night in Geneva, Switzerland. The move to support the group, with the pledge of central bank money, is designed to stem a crisis of confidence in Switzerland’s second-biggest lender that stems from years of scandals and losses. — Bloomberg

MULTI-billion dollar lifelines for troubled U.S. and European banks shored up investor confidence on Friday and bolstered sentiment in battered stocks, although concerns now centre on whether a global financial crisis has been fully averted.

Large U.S. banks injected $30 billion in deposits into First Republic Bank on Thursday, swooping in to rescue the lender caught up in a widening crisis triggered by the collapse of two other mid-size U.S. lenders over the past week.