India's major public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) has reported a 37% surge in its standalone net profit for the three month period ended December 31, 2008.

The bank has posted a net profit of Rs 2,478.42 crore as compared to Rs 1,808.64 crore for the same quarter year-ago (Dec 2007).

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, SBI informed that its total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 zoomed to Rs 21,255.90 crore as compared to Rs
15,364 crore during the corresponding quarter of the last year.

New York  - After crushing quarterly losses of 15.4 billion dollars, John Thain, the one-time head of Merrill Lynch, Thursday stepped down from head of the brokerage that was rescued by Bank of America in 2008.

Bank of America named Brian Moynihan to replace him, a top manager for the bank.

Thain negotiated Merrill's 50-billion-dollar sale to Bank of America in September, amidst the dizzying and urgent efforts to keep US financial institutions afloat amidst the plunging mortgage crisis.

A decline by 64% in the net profit of Kotak Mahindra Bank to Rs 130.9 crore for the quarter ended December 2008 compared to the year-ago period was reported by the bank today.

Due to weak liquidity and lower advances, the quarter registered fall in the total income of the bank. Total income fell by 32.14 per cent to Rs 1,684.75 crore during the quarter under consideration, from Rs 2,482.72 crore in the same period.

Housing finance giant, HDFC announced financial results for the third quarter of the current financial year. It reported 15 per cent rise in net profit which stands at Rs 542 crore as compared to Rs 471.9 crore in the same quarter last year.

It should be recalled that gain made through the sale of shares in HDFC Standard Life in Q3 of the previous fiscal has not been included while calculating net profit.

London - The British government was Thursday reported to be in talks with Barclays after the bank admitted that raising extra capital from the government could trigger a clause that would deliver control of the bank to its Middle East investors.

Barclays and HSBC are the two major British banks which have so far refused to join a massive recapitalization scheme offered by the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown last October.

The prospect that Barclays, Britain's fourth-biggest lender, could be surrendered to Middle Eastern control has alarmed officials, newspaper reports said.

Leading public sector lender Indian Bank has announced its financial results for the third quarter of the current financial year. The bank posted 14 per cent increase in net profit which stands at Rs 350.70 crore as compared to Rs 307.50 in the same period last quarter.

Its total income increased to Rs 2071.37 crore as compared to Rs 1676.00 crore in previous quarter.

The bank said in a filing before BSE, "The additional segments of corporate banking and retail banking have been included for the quarter and for the nine months ended