"The bank is closely monitoring developments, and will deal with issues as they arise," it said in a statement. By mid-afternoon, the central bank had made more than $1.6 billion available to Canadian banks at its regular interest rate, far more than its recent cash infusions into the financial system.

"This is a mini-panic," said Joseph Battipaglia, chief investment officer at Ryan Beck & Co. in New York, calling the central banks' injection of money unprecedented evidence that problems in subprime lending are spilling into the general economy.