According to anticipations of the investment banking firm Barclays Capital, it is likely that the impending annual credit policy of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may result in the slashing of the key rates by up to 50 basis points. An almost similar opinion has been expressed by the HDFC Bank, which, however, said that it projects a 25-basis-points cut in RBI's policy rates.

In line with the stipulations of the credit flow-regulating Credit Information Companies Act (CICA), 2005, the Credit Information Bureau India Ltd - CIBIL - has been granted 'in-principle approval' for Certificate of Registration by the Reserve Bank of India.

The certification allows companies in the telecommunications and insurance sectors to access credit data. Previously, the credit data could be accessed and shared by financial institutions such as banks and NBFCs.

Substantiating the December 2008 reports that some top-rung executives of ICICI Bank may quit after Chanda Kochhar's appointment as the new CEO and MD, two business chiefs - Renuka Ramnath ICICI Ventures' Managing Director and CEO; and Shikha Sharma, Managing Director of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance - are likely to put in their papers, sooner than later.

Rio de Janeiro  - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday spoke about the nationalization of troubled banks, in a speech before the 2009 World Economic Forum for Latin America.

Before more than 500 businessmen, bankers and government officials gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Lula stressed the fundamental role that the state has to play to bring about recovery from the ongoing financial and economic crisis, which demands the creation of a new world order.

Washington  - The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday said a number of regions are reporting an easing of the country's economic downturn, adding to some of the small signs that the world's largest economy may be stabilizing.

Five of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional banks reported a "moderation in the pace of decline, and several saw signs that activity in some sectors was stabilizing at a low level," according to the central bank's Beige Book, a regional report on the economy.

Zurich  - The Swiss banking giant UBS said Wednesday it will take a first-quarter loss of almost 2 billion Swiss francs (1.7 billion dollars) and will cut 8,700 jobs worldwide by 2010.

"Unfortunately I am not able, as yet, to offer you any good news," Oswald Grubel, chief executive officer of the UBS Group, told shareholders at the annual meeting while pledging to return to profitability.

The crisis, he said, "was not over," and would likely lead UBS to being a smaller bank. Previously at the UBS rival Credit Suisse, Grubel took over his role in February.