Dublin  - Anger is rising in Ireland after the latest body blow to the economy with the panic nationalization of the scandal-hit Anglo Irish Bank, the country's third-largest bank.

Enraged Anglo Irish shareholders are demanding the resignation of the bank's directors and threatened legal action after it emerged that undisclosed loans to the bank's former chairman Sean Fitzpatrick totalled 129 million euros (171.5 dollars).

Federal Bank was immensely helped by the sharp rise in other income and lower interest income to approximately double its net profit for the third quarter ending December 31, 2009 to Rs 203.89 cr from Rs 102.92 cr the previous fiscal.

The net profit of the bank had a rise by 45.67% to Rs 386.32 crore for the nine month ended December 31.

There was an increase by 94% to Rs 164.81 cr from Rs 84.95 cr the previous year in the other income of the bank for the quarter while an increase by 35.11% was noted in the interest income.

Belgrade - The governor of Serbia's central bank on Saturday welcomed a 530.3-million-dollar standby loan from the International Monetary Fund to help it weather the global financial crisis, calling it a "positive mark" for Serbia's economy.

The IMF approved the loan on Friday. Under the deal, 353.3 million dollars would be immediately available to Serbia. However, the government has said it only plans to tap the 15-month standby arrangement if absolutely necessary.

"There is still no need to use those funds," central bank governor Radovan Jelasic told Belgrade media.

London - Barclays has moved to assure investors that it will report a profit of more than 5.3 billion pounds (7.8 billion dollars) for 2008, after unexpected market turbulence caused a sharp drop in the bank's shares on Friday.

"The Board of Barclays knows no justification for the fall in the share price," read a statement from the bank, issued late Friday. "The board of Barclays expects to report profit before tax from the year ... well ahead of the 5,300-million-pound consensus estimate of sell-side analysts."

Vienna - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is concerned about a possible credit crunch in Central and Eastern Europe, in case Austrian banks start pulling out funds from stalling economies in the region, the daily Der Standard reported Friday.

Austrian banks have issued around a quarter of total foreign loans in CEE countries, trailed by Germany and Italy, according to the still unpublished report by the Washington-based IMF.

New York - Citigroup on Friday announced its fifth straight quarter of net losses, though it said it continues to focus on getting "fit."

According to a press release, the company had a fourth quarter net loss of 8.29 billion dollars.

For the full year of 2008, the company reported revenues of 52.8 billion dollars, reflecting a net loss of 18.72 billion dollars. That was worse than analysts had forecast.

A year ago, the company reported a loss of 9.8 billion dollars.