The moves in Britain are the latest in a flurry of recent actions taken by European governments and central banks trying to arrest the continent’s more-than-two-year crisis. Late last year, the European Central Bank started doling out more than €1 trillion, or about $1.25 trillion, of cheap three-year loans to hundreds of banks that were at risk of running short of funds. Last week, the Spanish government said it would request up to €100 billion to help its crippled banking system.
In the U.S., Fed officials say they are prepared to reactivate several programs to provide short-term funding to markets if conditions deteriorate. Those programs, originally created during the 2008-09 financial crisis, offered cheap loans to banks and flooded the U.S. financial system with liquidity to prevent strains.
The U.S. central bank is also providing dollar funding to Europe through the European Central Bank to ensure that continent’s financial institutions have access to the U.S. currency, which they use to make loans around the world.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week said those currency swap lines were “very helpful in reducing stress in dollar-funding markets.” 
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