The Union government, in its recent decision, has announced capital infusion in three public sector banks namely UCO Bank, Central Bank of India and  

Vijaya Bank. The Kolkata based UCO bank would get capital worth Rs 1,200 crore, through UCO's non-convertible preference shares, from center government in two installments, Rs 450 crore immediately and the balance Rs 750 crore in 2009-10.

Budapest - The Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority (HSFA) has fined the London-based bank HSBC for violating local laws in a bond trading deal last October.

The regulatory body announced on its website that it had imposed a fine of 80 million forints (350,000 dollars) on the bank for breaking local laws on manipulating the market.

The financial watchdog found that HSBC had offered for sale a large volume of Hungarian government bonds on October 10 last year, a move which led to rise in the yield of the bonds.

Brussels  - Shareholders in Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis on Wednesday rejected its emergency nationalization, throwing into chaos state plans to split up the crisis-hit lender.

In two votes, 57 per cent of shareholders rejected the sale of the Dutch parts of the bank to the Dutch state, while just over half of shareholders rejected the sale of the bank's Belgian arm to the Belgian state, and thence to French banking giant BNP Paribas, local media reported.

Washington - Wall Street's top executives on Wednesday defended the hundreds of billions of dollars their struggling firms have received in government bail-out funds, insisting the money has helped improve lending to consumers.

Many also recognized the sharp degree of public outrage at the slow recovery process and accepted some responsibility for the near- collapse of the US and global financial system.

Stockholm - Nordic Banking Group Nordea on  Tuesday said it would strengthen its capital base by 3 billion euros (3.89 billion dollars), by offering a 2.5-billion-euro rights issue and lowering its dividend.

The announcement was made as the bank released its fourth quarter 2008 results in which operating profits dropped 28 per cent to 781 million euros.

Total operating income in the quarter increased 5 per cent to 2.25 billion euros, while loan losses totalled 320 million euros in the quarter. The losses were mainly attributed to Denmark, but also to other Nordic markets and the Baltic states, Nordea said.

Geneva - UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, announced restructuring plans on Tuesday after reporting losses of 8.1 billion Swiss francs (6.9 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The bank's total 2008 losses amounted to more than 19.6 billion francs, going beyond the expectations of many analysts. The bank said it would cut an additional 2,000 jobs at its investment wing.

"UBS has had an encouraging start to the year," the bank reported in a statement, saying that it had positive net new money. "However, financial market conditions remain fragile as company and household cash flows continue to deteriorate."