The US government has announced a rescue plan for troubled banking giant Citigroup after its shares plunged by more than 60% last week.
The US Treasury is set to invest $20bn (£13.4bn) in return for preferred shares in Citigroup.
The Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp will also guarantee up to $306bn (£205bn) of risky loans and securities on Citigroup's books.
The plan follows a $25bn injection of public funds in the bank last month.
Citigroup's market value fell to $20.5bn on Friday, compared with $270bn in 2006.
Last week the company announced 52,000 job losses worldwide, on top of 23,000 job cuts previously announced. It employs around 12,000 people in the UK.
Citigroup has lost more than $20bn in the past year because of the global financial crisis, suffering four straight quarterly losses.
Citibank UK deposit holders are covered by the Financial Services Authority. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme guarantees up to £50,000 per Citibank account holder, should the bank go bust.
'Protecting taxpayers'
The action plan was announced after emergency talks over the weekend between the bank and the treasury department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Citigroup is one of the leading US banks and has operations in more than 100 countries.
Many analysts had calculated that the huge financial institution was too big to allow to fail.
"With these transactions, the US government is taking the actions necessary to strengthen the financial system and protect US taxpayers and the US economy," the three agencies said in a statement.
"We will continue to use all of our resources to preserve the strength of our banking institutions, and promote the process of repair and recovery and to manage risks," they added.
The cash injection will come from the $700bn financial bail-out fund created last month.
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