The Treasury Department may take ownership stakes in many U.S. banks to try to give the country’s financial system a much-needed boost, according to The New York Times.

Treasury officials say the just-passed $700 billion economic recovery package gives them the authority to take ownership and the leeway to inject cash directly into banks that request it. Officials hope that will strengthen banks’ balance sheets and persuade them to resume lending.

British officials on Wednesday announced a similar plan, which would offer banks like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC Holdings up to $87 billion to shore up their capital in exchange for preference shares. It also would provide a guarantee of about $430 billion to help banks refinance debt.

The appeal of the latest Treasury plan is that it would directly address worries banks have about lending to each other and customers. Additionally, the Bank of England announced its plan to nationalize part of the British banking system and devote almost $500 billion to guarantee financial transactions between banks.

Everyone is still looking for remedies to curb the economy from spiraling downward even more.

The Federal Reserve this week dropped its interest rates to 1.5 percent – the lowest level in more than four years. Wall Street bounced up and down Wednesday in response. Central banks in England, China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland and the European Central Bank also cut rates after a flurry of phone calls over several days between Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his counterparts.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost another 189 points, or 2 percent, to close at 9,258 on Wednesday. It was the sixth straight day of losses for the Dow.

For millions of Americans, the Fed’s cut means borrowing money for home equity loans, credit cards, and other floating-rate loans becomes cheaper.