Central banks pumped billions into money markets for a second day Tuesday as worries grew that US insurance giant AIG might follow investment bank Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy and spark a global meltdown.

A day after Lehman collapsed and Merrill Lynch, another Wall Street titan once considered invincible, was sold, central banks in Europe and Japan provided a desperately needed $160 billion in liquidity. In the United States, the Federal Reserve injected $50 billion, adding to Monday’s $70 billion and taking the total amount injected by central banks since the weekend to more than $300 billion.

The European Central Bank said it allotted 70 billion euros, more than double the 30-billion-euro injection it had provided on Monday. The Bank of Japan meanwhile carried out two injections, the first of 1.5 trillion yen and the second of 1.0 trillion yen.

In Britain, the Bank of England injected 20 billion pounds, four times Monday’s total. Switzerland’s central bank said it would supply liquidity “in a flexible manner and generously” to money markets.

$50 bn US Federal Reserve

$100 bn European Central Bank

$14 bn Bank of Japan

$35.9 bn Bank of England