Manila - The World Bank committed 10 billion dollars in a standby fund to help member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) weather the global economic crisis, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Wednesday.

Arroyo said the bank issued the commitment after the 10-country ASEAN and its partners Japan, China and South Korea agreed at the weekend to set up a mechanism that would help cash-strapped ASEAN members.

The largest private bank, ICICI Bank assured the customers that their money is safe with the bank and customers need not to worry about any thing. The bank has no sub prime investment and it has a small exposure in the US market.

The chairman of the ICICI bank, KV Kamath said that the bank has no problem of liquidity and it is well capitalized. He said that some market forces are spreading rumours about economic health of the bank. The bank maintains more than sufficient funds for successful monetary operations.

Paris - The French government's bank rescue plan passed its first hurdle late Tuesday as lawmakers in the National Assembly approved the 360-billion-euro (490-billion-dollar) measure by a vote of 224 to 23.

The plan, announced Monday by President Nicolas Sarkozy, will make available up to 320 billion euros to guarantee interbank loans and another 40 billion euros for the recapitalization of struggling banks.

Opposition Socialist lawmakers said they supported the plan but abstained from voting because they said it only addressed the financial crisis, not the economic crisis.

New York - Discover Financial Services Tuesday settled an 18-billion-dollar antitrust lawsuit at the last minute against its larger competitors Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc over charges the two companies had blocked banks from issuing its cards.

The deal, the terms of which were not announced, was sealed as jury selection was set to begin in Manhattan federal court.

Bloomberg financial news service quoted UBS AG analyst Adam Frisch as saying the case settled for about 2.8 billion dollars.

Amsterdam - Fortis will disappear as a brand name from the Netherlands, the chairman of the bank's board told Dutch BNR News Radio on Tuesday.

"We will have to let go of the brand name Fortis", Jan van Rutte told the broadcaster, noting the name now has a negative association, which might affect the bank adversely.

Van Rutte did not say whether Fortis will continue under the name of ABN Amro.

Two weeks ago the Dutch government nationalized Fortis Netherlands in a joint action with the Belgian government and French bank BNP Paribas in order to prevent Fortis' collapse.

Stockholm - Sweden is set to establish a fund to help banks that run into problems in future, Financial Markets Minister Mats Odell said Tuesday.

The Swedish National Debt Office was to manage the fund that was to be financed by the state and banking sector. The aim was to "stabilize" the bank sector and ensure lower mortgage rates, Odell told reporters.