New Delhi, Oct 15 : The Reserve Bank of India has further cut by one percent, the amount of mandatory cash that banks need to park with it - a move that would unlock Rs 40,000 crore into the financial system and pave the way for lower lending rates.

This is the third time that the central bank has cut the Cash Reserve Ratio in two weeks, bringing the combined cut to 2.50 percent that released a total of Rs 100,000 crore into the cash-starved banking sector so that they can resume normal lending operations.

New York - Wells Fargo & Co., the bank in the limelight in the acquisition of Wachovia Corp., reported Wednesday that it achieved 1.64 billion dollars in net income in the third-quarter.

The figure was down 24 per cent from the 2.17 billion dollar profit in the third quarter last year, but was better than what analysts had been projecting.

The Q3 net profit of 49 cents per share beat the average 43 cents forecast which analysts had projected in a survey for the business wire agency Bloomberg.

Reykjavik - Iceland's central bank lowered its key interest rate on Wednesday from 15.5 to 12 per cent, bending to increasing public pressure for a cut to ease the North Atlantic island's financial woes.

The central bank, or Sedlabanki, on Tuesday drew on swap facilities with Denmark and Norway, borrowing some 200 million euros (273 million dollars) from each.

Meanwhile negotiations with government officials in Moscow are ongoing over a Russian loan to Iceland of some 400 billion euros. Following the nationalization of Iceland's three largest banks last week, lack of funds to industry and commerce has become a pressing issue.

New Delhi, Oct 15 : The Reserve Bank and the government today agreed to take measures immediately to infuse liquidity into the system.

"RBI Governor D Subbarao will work out the details of the measures agreed upon between the government and the central bank," said Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

I expect to be able to make a statement later in the afternoon, he added.

RBI Governor D Subbarao last evening called on Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. P. Chidambaram was present at the meeting.

Paris - The French Senate was due Wednesday to debate and vote on the government's 360-billion-euro (490-billion-dollar) bank rescue plan after the bill passed the lower National Assembly by a huge margin.

The bill passed its first hurdle late Tuesday when the National Assembly approved it by 224 to 23 votes, sending the plan for final approval in the Senate.

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.

A net profit of Rs 402.91 crore was posted by Axis Bank durin