President Bush has signed the bank rescue bill into law which provides around $700 billion to bail out the nation’s limping finance sector.

The sense of urgency surrounding the bank rescue bill was evident as the President put the final seal of approval only an hour and a half after it was passed in the House by a majority vote of 263 to 171. An earlier version of the bill had been rejected the first time it was tabled before the House, mainly on the strength of opposition by Republican lawmakers. However a revised version of the bill was later brought on the floor of the Senate and approved on Wednesday.

The $700 billion bail out package authorizes federal agencies to buy and later resell bad mortgages and securities from banks and other troubled financial institutions from across the country. The main aim behind the government intervention is to help banks get the tainted assets off their books so that they can begin lending again and thus free up the credit market. Restricted lending conditions for an extended period of time harm businesses across the market spectrum and drag down the economy in the long run. Thus it was feared that if immediate steps were not taken, the crisis in the Wall Street might spill over into the Main Street as well as other parts of the global finance market.