New York - Saudi Arabia's Prince al-Walid bin Talal said Thursday that he plans to increase his stake in US bank Citigroup to 5 per cent of its shares.

Reserve Bank Chairman D Subbarao said that RBI is monitoring the liquidity situation on regular basis and will take more steps to improve liquidity conditions in the financial system. He attended a meeting with finance minister P Chidambaram to discuss market conditions and liquidity situation. The meeting was also attended by ICICI Bank CEO, KV Kamath and union Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath.

Dhabi, 19 Nov. 2008  - Abu Dhabi, UAE: Following ESCA approval received on 05 November, First Gulf Bank (FGB) Board of Directors decided to initiate the Share Buyback program for up to 10% of the Bank's shares issued and traded in the market.

In its ongoing struggle to steady itself after suffering massive losses from deteriorating debt, the New York-based banking giant, Citigroup Inc., announced Monday that it would cut another 24,000 jobs, bringing its total reductions to 52,000 in the coming months.

CEO Vikram Pandit discussed the plans - posted on the company’s web site – with the employees at the company’s town hall meeting in New York. The move comes after the company posted four straight quarterly losses, including a loss of $2.8 billion during the third quarter.

State Bank of India is likely to hire 25,000 persons by the end of March. SBI is the top lender of the country, having big network of branches and ATMs across almost all the towns of the country. SBI has presence in other countries as well.