The largest private sector bank of the country, ICICI has slashed interest rates by 50 to 75 basic points with immediate effect. Now, people can enjoy low interest rates on home and auto loans.

The announcement has come after some public sector and private lenders have taken initiative to reduce interest rates in line with the interest rate cut by the apex bank.
 

Geneva  - UBS and Credit Suisse, Switzerland largest banks, made two large deals Wednesday to close off what were bad years for both.

UBS AG announced in a statement that it has sold approximately 3.4 billion of its shares in Bank of China Ltd. to institutional investors.

The second largest bank, Credit Suisse, said it agreed to sell part of its Global Investors asset management business to Aberdeen Asset Management in return for stock worth 361 million dollars, giving it an almost 25 per cent holding in the company.

The sale comes with 70 billion dollars of assets under management.

It has recently been revealed by the bankers that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to cut the lending rate for the banks in the scene where inflation is declining even below the RBI’s comfort levels. It would even reduce the amount the banks need to keep with it anytime from now to support the demand.

On Saturday, the website of State Bank of India (SBI), was shut down due to an attempted attack by the hackers.

It was confirmed by a senior bank official, “There has been an attempt to disrupt the system.” However he did not give out any further details. The bank’s sites www.statebankofindia.com and www.sbi.co.in were down on Saturday, but its internet banking site www.onlinesbi.com was operational.

It was confirmed by the officials in the late evening, “The bank was targeting to get its website operational by 9.00pm.”

Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has reduced their prime lending rate by 50 basis points, with effect from January 1.

The BPLR of PNB would now stand 12 per cent, from the existing 12.50 per cent.

In addition, PNB also announced a reduction in its peak deposit rate by 100 basis points to 8.5 per cent for deposits of one year to less than three years beginning New Year.

New York - A group of firms was nearing an agreement with US regulators to buy the failed lender IndyMac, US media reported on Monday.

JC Flowers & Co, Dune Capital Management and Paulson & Co, a group of private-equity and hedge-fund investors, were in talks with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and an announcement was expected later this week, Bloomberg news reported.