But on Saturday they appeared to have done little to stem the panic. Thousands of nervous depositors were lined up outside the bank’s central branch in Kabul by 6 a.m. to withdraw their savings. Hundreds of men pushed and shoved their way to the front, while others waited behind them for hours in the sauna-like swelter of the lobby, making it impossible to discern where the lines ended and began.

Furious customers shouted angry complaints. An elderly woman cried out in distress.

But the teller drawers were largely empty and most customers left empty-handed. “What should I give you when I have nothing to give?” a teller told one agitated customer.

Similar scenes were reported at branches in other cities.

Top officials at Kabul Bank and a senior leader at the Central Bank declined to comment on the details of the rescue efforts, which were still being negotiated Saturday. However, a manager at the Central Bank and a senior American official confirmed that there would be what the American official called an “intervention.”

The United States is advising the Afghan government on how to manage the crisis, but is not contributing any American money, officials said.

“This is an Afghan issue,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said in a statement. “While we are providing technical assistance to the Afghan government, no American taxpayer funds will be used to support Kabul Bank."

The official at the Afghan Central Bank, who, like others involved in the deliberations, requested anonymity, said that the bank’s risk management department was preparing to take over operations at Kabul Bank, and that Kabul’s existing management would be purged.

A major shareholder in the bank, Mahmoud Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president, said Saturday that government assistance would be unnecessary considering that the bank still retained half of its assets, which officials say are about $2 billion. He said the government “will absolutely guarantee” the salaries of public servants and was transferring money to Kabul Bank each day.