Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday that more economic pain looms but he urged "patience" and said the federal government will use all tools necessary to support banks, reported CNN.
In addition, Paulson said he would discuss with his counterparts in G7 countries what more can be done collectively to stabilize the financial system. He said he will be calling for a meeting of the G20, which includes countries with emerging economies.
Officials from the G7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States - are meeting in Washington, D.C., this weekend.
On Wednesday morning, the Federal Reserve, working in coordination with other central banks worldwide, enacted an emergency interest rate cut. The Fed lowered its fed funds rate by a half percentage point to 1.5%.
The rate cuts are the latest in a series of groundbreaking moves by the world's top central banks to try to breathe life into embattled financial markets.
Earlier in the week, the Fed took steps that could potentially make trillions of dollars available to banks and the nation's leading businesses. That's on top of the controversial $700 billion Wall Street bailout approved by Congress last week.
In addition, the Bank of England on Wednesday announced a plan to bail out that nation's banks, saying it would make at least $350 billion available.