- Abu Dhabi Will Aid Debt-Fraught Dubai 'Case by Case'
- Banks With The Biggest Exposure to The UAE
- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- Next Week: Cash In Now Or Wait For A Santa Rally?
- Dubai Stock Selloff May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Big US Banks May Be Forced to Raise Capital: Bove
- Bank of America Amends Pay for Senior Executives
- Tiger Woods Out of Hospital After Accident
- U.S. Stocks Fall on Dubai Worries
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Strategists on Dubai: Avoid 'Rash Moves' Now
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Surprising Options Trades in TiVo Shares
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales Through Pop-Up Locations
MOST SHARED
Text Size 
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, told CNBC he will do whatever it takes to stabilize the British economy—possibly including the so-called "bad bank" option—but he insisted that the country must avoid measures that would stem foreign trade.
"We have to be very careful that whatever we do we don’t end up in the situation where you are, one way or another, putting up barriers to trade, because that would make us all poorer," Darling said in the exclusive television interview with CNBC Friday.
Darling said that he hadn’t ruled out the option of using a "bad bank" to help banks with their failed assets.
Watch Ross Westgate's extended interview with Alistair Darling above.
Such an option would involve some form of a government takeover of endangered banks' bad assets, so banks can scratch the assets from their balance sheets and, presumably, carry out more lending.
"We are looking at an insurance scheme for assets that may be impaired, but I’ve also made it clear that I wouldn’t rule out a bad bank, for example … we need a number of options," he said.
Darling supported US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s public/private partnership strategy and said that as long as governments around the world have the same goal in sight, different policies were acceptable.
"I don’t mind that what people are putting forward is different, the important thing is that we’re all aiming at solving the same problem and we’ve all got the same end in sight," he said.
Darling made the comments at a G7 meeting of finance ministers in Rome, which has brought together global leaders in the hope of hammering out a path for economic recovery.
Underscoring the importance of the meeting’s mission, official data revealed that the euro zone economy suffered its deepest contraction on record in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Print
Email
- These four sectors will be the next to lead the market.
- Zhu Zhu Pets are this year's must-have toy, fetching $40 or more on eBay.
- From the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that file, we present Jason Sadler, a man whose job is wearing T-shirts.
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- Shopping for a gadget hound? The choices can be baffling. Here are a few that should be a hit.
- "The Who" will be the halftime act for Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami. Is the NFL behind the times?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes