LONDON—The Bank of England will unveil on Monday a plan to swap government bonds for commercial banks' mortgage debt in an effort to unblock the home loan market and ease the effects of the credit crunch on consumers.
"The Bank will be making money available to the British banking system ... the idea behind it is it will open up the market and it will begin the process of opening up the mortgage market," Finance Minister Alistair Darling said on Sunday.
Pressure has been growing on the British government and the Bank of England to do more to resolve a mortgage debt crisis threatening to slam the brakes on the economy and which is contributing to a slump in support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Darling told the BBC that he would make an announcement to the British parliament on Monday afternoon.
The BBC reported on Friday that the package involved swapping 50 billion pounds ($99.80 billion) of government bonds for mortgage-backed securities.
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