NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A group of French banks are setting up an investment fund to bail out small and midsize asset managers if there is a liquidity shortage, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The banks, which include BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale, Natixis, Credit Agricole SA's Calyon, and the French unit of HSBC Holdings, have been working since this summer to create the conduit so that if liquidity dried up and investors wanted to withdraw their assets, the fund could prevent a fire sale by offering to buy those assets, the Journal said.
While the value of the conduit is not yet known, the banks would put about $1.47 billion of their own asset-backed securities into it, the Journal reported.