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U.S. weighs backing bank debt, deposits: reports

SYDNEY - The U.S. government is weighing guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt and temporarily insuring al U.S. bank deposits, in a bid to unfreeze bank lending and staunch massive losses in equity markets, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The New York Times reported that U.S. and British officials were converging on a similar blueprint to stem financial chaos involving injections of government money into banks in return for ownership stakes and guarantees of repayment for various types of loans.

On Wednesday, Britain said it would inject 50 billion pounds ($87 billion) of emergency capital into banks left reeling by the global financial crisis and extend 250 billion pounds in guarantees to help them refinance senior debt.

The British concept to expand its proposal to other countries has a lot of support from Wall Street and is being pored over by U.S. officials, the papers said.

The WSJ quoted White House spokesman Tony Fratto as saying that the U.S. "is reviewing the idea and discussing it with our British counterparts."

The NYT quoted David H. McCormick, the under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs, saying:

"As this thing has spread, the opportunities for cooperation have risen. We need to promote and highlight these common areas."

This was an about face for Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson who had argued against taking direct stakes in banks. Treasury officials, however, said the emphasis changed in the last week, largely because stock markets kept spiraling lower, the NYT reported.

The S&P 500 shed 7.6 percent on Thursday, while Japan's Nikkei lost over 11 percent at one stage on Friday as markets across Asia sank.

The White House could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.