Investors are not convinced that a $700 billion financial rescue plan approved Friday in the United States will do much to avoid a global economic crisis.
The plan allows the U.S. government to buy failing investments from troubled financial companies in an effort to restore lender and investor confidence, and to restart economic growth.
Europe Helps Banks
European leaders are pledging to bail out troubled banks and protect depositors, as they called for a more coordinated response to the global financial crisis.
In Germany, government and business leaders have agreed on a rescue package for the troubled commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate AG.
The $68 billion plan replaces an earlier rescue effort that fell through on Saturday.
France's biggest bank, BNP Paribas, will take control of much of Fortis, a Belgian and Dutch banking and insurance group. The Netherlands recently nationalized the group's Dutch operations.
Europe's financial system has been hard-hit by the U.S. economic crisis.
In the United States, the battle between rivals Citigroup and Wells Fargo to take over troubled Wachovia Bank continues. Sunday a New York appeals court ruled that Wachovia cannot be forced to negotiate only with banking giant Citigroup.
Citigroup had reached a preliminary agreement a week ago to buy Wachovia's banking assets, in a deal backed by the U.S. government. But on Friday Wells Fargo said it had signed an agreement with Wachovia to buy the entire company without government help.
Some information for this report was provided by Bloomberg, AFP, AP and Reuters. Reported by VOA News.
