Vienna - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is concerned about a possible credit crunch in Central and Eastern Europe, in case Austrian banks start pulling out funds from stalling economies in the region, the daily Der Standard reported Friday.

Austrian banks have issued around a quarter of total foreign loans in CEE countries, trailed by Germany and Italy, according to the still unpublished report by the Washington-based IMF.

New York - Citigroup on Friday announced its fifth straight quarter of net losses, though it said it continues to focus on getting "fit."

According to a press release, the company had a fourth quarter net loss of 8.29 billion dollars.

For the full year of 2008, the company reported revenues of 52.8 billion dollars, reflecting a net loss of 18.72 billion dollars. That was worse than analysts had forecast.

A year ago, the company reported a loss of 9.8 billion dollars.

Federal Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 203.89 crore for the third quarter (Q3) ending December 31, 2009, as against Rs 102.92 crore during the corresponding period of the last year (December 2007).

The Kerala-based bank said that a sharp increase in other income and lower interest income helped it to post nearly two-fold increase in its net profit.

The bank said, “The figures for the corresponding previous periods are not reclassified and therefore not comparable.”

Dublin - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said Friday that it was "business as usual" at the nationalized Anglo Irish Bank as trading in its shares was suspended on the Dublin stock exchange, Irish national broadcaster RTE reported.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said late Thursday that the Irish government would take complete control of Anglo Irish after it deemed a plan to inject cash into Ireland's third-largest bank "not now the appropriate and effective means to secure its continued viability."

Frankfurt - The European Central Bank (ECB) lowered its key interest rate by half a percentage point on Thursday, underscoring efforts to combat the recession gripping countries in the eurozone.

The reduction of the benchmark refinancing rate to 2 per cent came amid a slowdown in inflation and a flood of gloomy economic data in what is shaping up to be a tough economic year.

Indusind Bank has announced a phenomenal growth in its standalone net profit for the three month period ended December 31, 2008.

During the third quarter, the bank has recorded growth of 79.95% in its net profit to Rs 450.60 million, as compared to Rs 250.40 million during the corresponding period of the previous year (Dec 2007).

The bank’s interest income grew 25.10% to Rs 6,274.80 million, whereas total income for the same period zoomed 34.34% to Rs 7,605.50 million, when compared with the prior year period.