NEW YORK -- More financial help is on the way for embattled insurance giant AIG.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve agreed to loan the insurance company up to $37.8 billion.
Under the rescue program, the federal reserve bank of New York will borrow the money in fixed income securities from AIG, in return for cash collateral.
The new money is on top of the $85 billion loan the company received last month to help in their financial crisis.
The news came after a wild day on Wall Street.
Stocks were on a roller coaster ride before finally closing down about 189 points.
Get live updates on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Federal Reserve Cuts Rate
Wednesday morning, the Federal Reserve ordered an emergency interest rate cut to cope with the worst financial crisis since the 1929 stock market crash.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues ratcheted down their key rate by 0.5 percent, to 1.5 percent. The action revives the central bank's rate-cutting campaign, which had been halted in June out of concerns that those low rates would worsen inflation. Since then, however, economic and financial conditions have dangerously deteriorated, forcing the Fed to reverse course.
The fact that the Fed felt it could not wait until its regularly scheduled meeting late this month underscored the urgency of the situation.
The Fed clearly acted out of concern about a global plunge in stock markets. Before the Fed acted, Wall Street looked to extend its precipitous drop when trading began, and Asian and European markets were already skidding.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, Sweden and China joined the United States in coordinated series of interest rate cuts.
Chaos In Global Markets
Global markets plummeted overnight -- a likely reaction to the Dow's massive drop Tuesday and over the last couple of weeks.
Investors have ongoing fears about the state of credit markets, despite the British government's $87.5 billion rescue package
for the banking system.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei suffered its worst day since the 1987 stock market crash. Other Asian markets dipped deep into the red.
Banking stocks were among the biggest losers across European markets. British banks have fared slightly better after the British government's announcement that it stands ready to take stakes in British banks and give them fresh capital.
Stocks in France and Germany lost 6.1 percent early, while the London exchange was down 5.2 percent.
Trading was suspended on Russia's main exchange until Friday after steep losses at the outset.
The chaos in the financial markets spilled onto the streets of Hong Kong. Investors battled police outside the Hong Kong headquarters of Bank of China. They demanded the repayment of their investments -- most notably Lehman Brothers. That investment bank declared bankruptcy in September.
Protesters swarmed other banks in Hong Kong, insisting that bankers lied about the risk involved in their investments. Lawmakers said they'd meet with bankers to discuss the crisis.
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