The long delay in the settlement issues including wage revismerger and consolidation in the banking was more than enough to agitate the employees of public sector banks. That’s why on Wednesday, over nine lakh employees of public sector banks went on a two day nationwide strike. The major private sector banks however remained open and continued with their regular work.

New York - Federal regulators late Thursday shut down Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu), the largest US saving and loan, in what is is the largest-ever US bank failure.

WaMu's deposit accounts were immediately purchased by banking giant JP Morgan Chase & Co for 1.9 billion dollars, guaranteeing that no depositors would lose money.

New Delhi, Sept 25 : Banking operations were affected as the strike call given by the employees union demanding settlement of issues like wage revision and termination of job outsourcing in banking sector among other issues entered the second day today.

According to reports, operations were almost paralysed in the public sector banks from various parts of the country.

However, cash needs of ordinary customers were met by ATMs.

On Wednesday, operations of state-run banks remained almost paralysed as about nine lakh employees went on stir.

Hong Kong - Panic died down Thursday among customers of Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia who a day earlier had rushed to withdraw their savings amid rumours the bank was facing collapse.

Long queues of hundreds of customers died away Thursday morning after Hong Kong's chief executive, the head of its central bank and the bank's chairman all insisted the institution was not in difficulty.

Text messages widely circulated from Monday said the bank was on the brink of collapse, sparking a rush to withdraw funds from the bank's 130 branches in Hong Kong.

A recent research note issued by Macquarie Securities has clarified that the short lending rate by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be kept unchanged at 9.0% at the next policy review on 24th October. 

Earlier, Macquarie had forecast an increase of a quarter percentage point in the repo rate to 9.25%. However it had said that a revision in the forecast has been done following the global financial problems. 

Berlin  - The head of a German public bank, KfW, has described how staff frantically snatched 20 billion euros' worth of planned swaps away from Lehman Brothers on Monday last week, the day the US investment bank failed.

Chief executive Ulrich Schroeder, 56, was testifying behind closed doors to a parliamentary inquiry in Berlin, but participants leaked details to the press.

The legislators were investigating how one future-trading settlement went awry, with KfW transferring cash to Lehman and receiving nothing in return a week ago.