Lending fund for commercial property

Bloomberg

The Australian government will provide 2 billion Australian dollars and the remainder will come from equal contributions from the nation’s four largest banks Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., Westpac Banking Corp., and National Australia Bank Ltd.

The fund could be accessed by March, the statement said.

A shortfall in credit could push Australia’s economy into its first recession since 1991, worsening a surge in job cuts at companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. following a drop in demand from China and waning consumer spending. Governments in the U.S. and Europe are bolstering measures to underwrite bank lending after recapitalization efforts failed to restore credit flow.

"I think we will see some withdrawals," of foreign bank lending in Australia, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner told journalists in Melbourne. "Nobody can be certain how large that degree of withdrawal may be."

Overseas banks accounted for more than half the 285 billion Australian dollars in syndicated loans issued to Australian businesses since 2006, Rudd said this week.