Leading global banks including Citigroup and UBS on Tuesday faced renewed pressure to write down or sell billions of dollars in toxic assets following Merrill Lynch’s disposal of $30bn in mortgage-related securities at a cut price.

Merrill’s move to sell collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) for $6.7bn, or 22 cents on the dollar – announced on Monday night – raised hopes that other banks would be able to strike similar deals and purge their balance sheets of bad assets.