New York - US banking giant Citigroup Inc will buy the bulk of the operations of fourth-largest bank Wachovia Corp, the latest consolidation move under government watch in the ongoing credit crisis.

Citigroup will buy the banking business of Wachovia and get government help in absorbing some of the losses related to the subprime-mortgage market, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said in a statement.

But the FDIC insisted the takeover should not be viewed as a bail- out, and assured Wachovia customers that operations would continue to run smoothly in the transition.

Citigroup will take on more than 40 billion dollars in losses.

Reykjavik - The government of Iceland Monday bought a majority stake in Glitnir bank, the government and bank said. 

Amsterdam - Dutch insurance company Aegon annou

London - The British government Monday announced the partial nationalization of ailing mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B), the second bank this year to be taken into public ownership.

Amsterdam  - Shareholders and analysts were waiting for the stock exchanges to open Monday to see if the 49-per-cent nationalization of Dutch-Belgian insurance and banking giant Fortis would regain the confidence of investors.

Late Sunday night the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg announced they had each purchased 49 per cent of Fortis, paying the bank a total of 11.2 billion euros (16.35 billion dollars).

The Dutch government will take over 49 per cent of the insurance company, for which it will pay some 4 billion euros. The Dutch banking division ABN Amro is to be sold.

India's biggest public-sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) has increased its deposit rates in certain maturities effective from October 1.

The bank has launched a 1000-days deposit scheme that provides 10.5% interest to depositors. However, senior citizens will receive a higher 11% interest in the new deposit-scheme.

Besides this, the lender has informed that an additional 0.25% rate above the card rate will be offered on a single term deposit of Rs 15 lakh and above, having tenure of 181 days to less than 2 years.