SHARES RALLY AFTER HUGE BANK BAILOUT

BUT FEARS REMAIN THAT TURMOIL IN MARKETS MAY LEAD TO FULL-ON CRASH

- Jonathan Prynn, Simon English and Nicholas Cecil

SHARES rallied in London today after the Swiss authorities launched an emergency £45 billion rescue of one of its biggest banks to avert a global financial crisis.

The move to bail-out stricken Credit Suisse came in the early hours after days of turmoil on the global financial markets that was threatening to spiral into a full-blown crash. Europe’s 16th biggest bank said it would have access to 50 billion Swiss francs (£44.6 billion) of funding from the Swiss National Bank to shore up its balance sheet.

The bank, which has as many as 7,000 staff working in London, mostly at Canary Wharf, called the loan a “decisive action to pre-emptively strengthen its liquidity”.

It came after one of the most tumultuous weeks on financial markets since the Lehman disaster 15 years ago, with some traders fearing that the rescue is only a short-term fix with the stability of more major banks likely to come under scrutiny in the coming days.