1.   Banks are now cutting their prime rates.

2.   At least one bank cut its prime rate today.

3.   As events turned out, the bank cut rates more than expected.

4.   Banks are cutting lending while they try and write off trillions of yen in irrecoverable loans they hold.

5.   Banks are cutting costs and consolidating, freeing capital to be paid to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

6.   A cut would allow banks to cut operating costs and lend more, generating profit growth.

7.   A further decline in stocks could send growth skidding even more as banks cut lending, further choking companies in need of cash.

8.   After an acquisition binge, German banks are cutting jobs to improve profits.

9.   All but one of those who expected a rate cut today assumed the bank would only cut by a quarter point to keep hopes of another rate cut alive.

10.   But exploration, always risky, dropped sharply after Venezuela imposed foreign-exchange controls last year, causing foreign banks to cut off loans.