G7 Ministers Announce 'Action Plan'

Finance ministers and central bank officials from leading industrialized nations have kicked off a critical meeting at the U.S. Treasury Department to discuss ongoing turmoil in the financial markets and measures to stem a crisis that has rapidly spread around the globe.

International stock markets have plummeted this week and credit markets have frozen. Investors are yearning for finance officials this weekend to announce a coordinated plan to ease market tension.

Text of G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors' plan of action, as provided by the Treasury Department:

The G-7 agrees today that the current situation calls for urgent and exceptional action. We commit to continue working together to stabilize financial markets and restore the flow of credit, to support global economic growth. We agree to:

1) Take decisive action and use all available tools to support systemically important financial institutions and prevent their failure.

2) Take all necessary steps to unfreeze credit and money markets and ensure that banks and other financial institutions have broad access to liquidity and funding.

3) Ensure that our banks and other major financial intermediaries, as needed, can raise capital from public as well as private sources, in sufficient amounts to re-establish confidence and permit them to continue lending to households and businesses.