WASHINGTON, United States -- A consortium of 10 global commercial and investment banks announced plans Sunday to provide $70 billion in credit to offset a squeeze with the anticipated collapse of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers.

Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, said in a joint statement they "initiated a series of actions to help enhance liquidity and mitigate the unprecedented volatility and other challenges affecting global equity and debt markets."

They agreed to create a "collateralized borrowing facility" of $70 billion, with each bank contributing $7.0 billion, to help ease access to credit.

They also said they would work together "to help facilitate an orderly resolution" of the derivatives exposures between Lehman Brothers and its counterparties.

"These actions reflect the extraordinary market environment," the statement said.

"The banks are committed to continuing to work closely with one another as well as the US Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, governments and regulators around the world, and other market participants, to ensure the industry is doing everything it can to provide additional liquidity and assurance to our capital markets and banking system."