Charlotte, United States  - Bank of America, the second- largest US financial institution, posted profits for the second quarter of 3.4 billion dollars that were down on last year but well above expectations.

The bank said it had been compelled to make write-downs of 1.2 billion dollars as a result of the continuing financial crisis.

Net revenue for the quarter rose to a record 20.3 billion dollars.

London - Britain's HBOS bank, one of the first to turn to investors for a cash boost, said Monday that less than 10 per cent of its shareholders had taken part in a rights issue of 4 billion pounds (8 billion dollars). 

Halifax Bank of Scotland said just 8.29 per cent of investors opted to buy heavily discounted shares as part of the scheme to help strengthen its balance sheet, announced in April. 

This means that the rights issue's underwriters, Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort, have to find buyers for more than 3.6 billion pounds worth of shares by Tuesday's deadline, or accept the stock themselves if they fail to do so. 

Following the footsteps of leading lenders like the State bank of India and PNB, another Public sector lender Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has increased its prime lending rate (PLR) by 50 basis

Investment Information Credit Rating Agency ICRA Limited (ICRA) has

New York - Troubled investment bank Merrill Lynch, the country's third largest securities firm, late Thursday reported higher-than-expected second quarter losses, with writedowns of 9.7 billion do

Singapore - Insurance funds run by a unit of Singapore's OC