Ketua IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, memberitahu satu mesyuarat di Washington pada hujung minggu 11/12 Oktober 2008: "Kebimbangan yang semakin meningkat tentang keupayaan membayar hutang beberapa institusi kewangan terbesar yang berpangkalan di AS dan Eropah telah menolak sistem kewangan global ke ambang keruntuhan sistemik."

The head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, told a Washington meeting over the weekend of 11/12 October 2008: “Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest US-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown.”.

Di London, Gordon Brown dan pasukan Perbendaharaannya bekerja lebih masa bersama penasihat bank pelaburan mereka, termasuk Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, Citigroup dan Credit Suisse. Pada minggu berakhir 12 Oktober, pasukan bekerja sepanjang masa untuk mencari penyelesaian kepada krisis tersebut. Eksekutif kanan dari Credit Suisse mendirikan pejabat sementara di dewan tengah 10 Downing Street, sekali gus memberikan makna baharu kepada istilah akses kepada koridor kuasa. Apabila pengumuman mengenai bantuan penyelamatan bank dibuat pada pagi Isnin, 12 Oktober, akhbar-akhbar British memuji "Balti Bailout". Istilah itu merujuk kepada sesi lewat malam antara pasukan Perbendaharaan, peguam, penasihat bank pelaburan dan eksekutif bank yang sedang bergelut, untuk merundingkan satu perjanjian bagi menyelamatkan bank-bank dan sistem tersebut, di mana pasukan krisis itu menikmati kari bungkus yang bernilai £245. Tidak mahu ketinggalan dengan pakej bantuan penyelamatan bernilai $700 bilion yang telah diluluskan Kongres Amerika Syarikat minggu sebelumnya, Brown kini mempunyai rancangannya sendiri, yang disusun dalam satu persetujuan waktu fajar yang dibuat di atas kotak-kotak makanan bungkus.

In London Gordon Brown and his Treasury team were working overtime with their investment banking advisors including Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Credit Suisse. During the week ending the 12th of October, teams worked around the clock to find a solution to the crisis. Senior executives from Credit Suisse set up a temporary office in the central hallway of 10 Downing Street, bringing new meaning to the term access to the corridors of power. When the announcements were made of the bank bailout Monday morning the 12th of October, British papers hailed the “Balti Bailout”. This was in reference to the late night sessions between the Treasury team, lawyers, investment bank advisors and stricken bank executives to thrash out a deal to save the banks and the system, in which the crisis teams dined on take away curries worth £245. Not wanting to be outdone by the US $700 billion bailout package that Congress had passed the week before, Brown now had his own plan cobbled together in a dawn deal done over the take-away boxes.

Walaupun rancangan bailout bernilai US$700 bilion itu diluluskan dengan penuh kontroversi pada percubaan kali kedua oleh Kongres, bailout UK pula berjumlah sekurang-kurangnya £500 bilion ($850 bilion) dan menyebabkan kerajaan melepasi had peminjaman yang ditetapkan, tanpa sebarang perbahasan Parlimen yang bermakna. Walaupun terdapat kepentingan peribadi yang sangat besar untuk memastikan "rakan judi" mereka tidak tumbang, bank pelaburan sebenarnya yang merangka rancangan bailout "bank pelaburan" itu. Dengan sepenuhnya sedar bahawa Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax Bank of Scotland dan lain-lain merupakan bahagian penting dalam rantai domino panjang pemegang kontrak derivatif, tiada penyelesaian lain yang pernah wujud selain bailout besar-besaran yang melakukan "apa sahaja yang perlu", seperti yang dipetik daripada Canselor Alistair Darling. Namun, adalah juga naif untuk menganggap bahawa bank pelaburan terkemuka tidak bertindak demi kepentingan sendiri dengan merugikan mereka yang kurang bernasib baik berbanding mereka, yang akan dibebani dengan saham keutamaan berkadar faedah tinggi di bawah kawalan Kerajaan serta moratorium ke atas bonus eksekutif dan dividen masa depan. Setiausaha Perbendaharaan AS, Henry Paulson, yang pernah menjadi ketua Goldman Sachs, tidak dapat dilihat sebagai tokoh yang tidak berpihak ketika beliau merangka rancangan bailout bank AS bernilai $700 bilion. Bagi rancangan ini, seorang pegawai perbendaharaan mengakui bahawa angka $700 bilion itu dikira dengan hanya menggunakan "nombor yang sangat besar".

While the US$700 billion plan passed with great controversy at the second time of asking by Congress, the UK bailout would total at least £500 billion ($850 billion) and take the government beyond its borrowing rules without any significant Parliamentary debate. Despite enormous vested interests in ensuring that their “gambling buddies” did not fail, investment banks were the architects of the “investment bank” bailout plan. Knowing full well that Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax Bank of Scotland and others were key pieces in the long domino chain of derivative contract holders there was never going to be any other solution but a massive bailout doing “whatever was necessary” to quote from the Chancellor Alistair Darling. But it would also be naïve to assume that the leading investment banks were also not acting in their own interests by nobbling those slightly less fortunate than themselves who would be lumbered with Government controlled high rate paying preference shares and a moratorium on executive bonuses and future dividends. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as a former head of Goldman Sachs could hardly be seen as an impartial figure as he drew up the $700 billion US bank bailout plan. A plan for which a treasury official admitted the figure of $700 billion was calculated by merely adopting “a very large number”.

Walaupun sama-sama disusun dengan tergesa-gesa, sekurang-kurangnya pakej penyelamatan UK mempunyai beberapa butiran untuk menyokong angka tersebut, walaupun angka-angka itu tidak memberi bacaan yang menyenangkan.

Although equally hurriedly put together at least the UK bailout had some detail to back up the number, not that the numbers made for good reading.