In order to capture a share in the German market for online and telephone banking, ICICI Bank UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank has opened a branch in the financial centre of Frankfurt.

Chief Executive Kundapur Vaman Kamath said, “Germany, as Europe's largest economy, is an important step in the international expansion strategy of ICICI Bank.”

The new branch, member of the Association of German Banks, will concentrate on serving corporate business groups with substantial Germany-India relationships.

Banking sector Major HDFC bank is in talks with Centurion Bank of Punjab.  The news of the possible merger was first reported by Economic Times on 13, Feb, 2008.  If the deal is finalised, HDFC bank will become the third biggest bank with a wide network all across the country.

Centurion Bank of Punjab informed the stock exchange that a meeting of the board of directors of the bank will be held on February 23, 2008 to consider a possible merger with HDFC Bank Ltd.

New Delhi, Feb 21 : The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to modify the earlier decision of the Cabinet to the extent that the Government may subscribe to the rights issue of equity shares of S

The major public sector banks including State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of India (BoI) are doing robust efforts to attract more and more customers. They have slashed their lending rates for the second time this month by 25 basis points.

Canara Bank has also announced a fresh cut of similar proportion.

Mr. M B N Rao, chairman and managing director Canara Bank said that the reduction in lending rates will enable them to rationalize their deposit cost structure.

Canara's BPLR now stands at 12.75% and SBI’s at 12.25%.

This second reduction on the BPLR coupled with the downward revision done on February 11, has inflicted further substantially the lending rates in the retail sectors such as housing, personal, vehicle and educational loans.

New Delhi, Feb 11 : The St