ANALYSIS:Global meltdown visited Ireland yesterday as all four listed banks took a vicious hammering

FIVE BANKS were rescued yesterday by state bailouts, emergency loans or white knight buyers - all before 1pm GMT.

One senior Irish bank executive joked that you could hardly blink yesterday without an emergency measure being announced to keep yet another bank in business.

The word "unprecedented" can be used on a weekly basis without risk of hyperbole amid the global financial chaos. Yesterday marked another extraordinary day in the international banking sector.

"I am definitely shell-shocked," said Alex Potter, analyst with London investment bank Collins Stewart.

Irish shares took a pummelling, recording their steepest decline in one-quarter of a century.

The Iseq index of Irish stocks closed down 13 per cent, the biggest fall since January 5th, 1983. The index recorded the steepest fall of any market tracked around the globe.

As US lawmakers rejected the $700 billion (€485 billion) financial rescue plan, the biggest proposed state intervention in the country's economy since the Great Depression of 1929, governments across Europe stepped in to rescue four major banks.

The world's largest bank, Citigroup, acquired most of Wachovia, the sixth-largest US bank, and central banks pumped hundreds of billions into banking systems across the world.

Wachovia was just last week in talks to become a possible saviour for Morgan Stanley, one of two Wall Street investment banks to survive the financial carnage.

Belgian-Dutch financial giant Fortis, which is involved in Postbank, the Irish savings bank with An Post, received an injection of more than €11 billion in a part-nationalisation of the company by the governments of Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Fortis has invested €56 million in its half-share in Postbank, though being focused on deposits rather than loans means the Irish savings bank will be a valuable asset to Fortis in a market where money is hard to come by.

German lender Hypo Real Estate, which owns the Dublin-based public sector lender Depfa, secured a credit line from the German government and private banks for up to €35 billion.

British mortgage provider Bradford Bingley, the largest lender to the UK landlord sector, was brought under the wing of the UK government to keep the business afloat and almost 200 of its branches were sold to Spanish bank Banco Santander, the second-largest mortgage lender in Britain.

Iceland's third-largest bank, the 104-year-old Glitnir, was taken over by the Icelandic government in a €600 million deal after its short-term funding dried up.

The possible US bailout failed to unlock money markets as banks hoarded cash, driving up the cost of borrowing costs in the wholesale markets where, all told, Irish banks source about half of their €500 billion in liabilities.

The cost of borrowing in euro for a three-month term, a rate that sets mortgage costs for banks across Europe, reached a record as banks refused to lend to one another in response to yet more bad news on international banks.

Shares in the four listed Irish banks took a hammering, falling sharply to record lows.

Anglo Irish Bank, the country's third-largest bank, fell the most, shedding 46 per cent, the bank's steepest decline in more than two decades.

Anglo's closing share price of €2.30 valued the bank at €1.74 billion. The bank has shed 87 per cent since its shares peaked above €17.50 some 16 months ago when the bank was worth €13.3 billion.

Anglo was dragged down by the rescue of Hypo, which, like the Irish bank, is a heavy lender to the commercial property sector.

Irish Life Permanent, the country's largest mortgage lender, fell 34.2 per cent, while Bank of Ireland dropped 15.3 per cent. Both have an exposure to the buy-to-let sector which forced Bradford Bingley (BB) to seek the protection of the UK treasury.

Bank of Ireland and Irish Life Permanent have been at pains to convince investors in recent months that their UK buy-to-let loans, which combined are worth €18 billion, are of a higher quality that BB's loans to landlords.

Bank of Ireland has €10.5 billion in loans to UK buy-to-let investors, or about 7 per cent of its overall loan book, while Irish Life Permanent has about €8 billion in loans to British landlords, or about one-fifth of its book.

All banks, including Irish institutions, will face further pressure in the coming days following the rejection of the proposed US state rescue of the financial sector.