Congress started challenging a 700-billion-dollar White House plan to rescue the US financial system Monday as US stocks plunged more than 3 per cent and industrialized countries pledged action to ensure global economic stability.

On Wall Street, the last two remaining major investment banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, left the high-wire world of risk to become bank-holding companies with the approval of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve.

Public-Sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) has inked MoU with Networth Stock Broking Limited (NSBL) for offering Internet trading services to its huge client base.

Under the arrangement, NSBL will provide its online trading platform and expertise for e-broking services in Equities, Derivatives and online IPO services to the customers of PNB.

London  - The British government will introduce legislation to tighten up supervision of the banking system and "review the bonus culture" in the City of London, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, said Monday.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Manchester, northern Britain, Darling warned of a "bumpy road ahead" for the economy but insisted that Britain was well equipped to "weather these global storms."

He said Britain was putting in place, "here and internationally," tougher financial regulations to stabilize the banking system.

Washington - The decision by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs - the last two major US investment banks still on their feet - to become bank holding companies signals the end of high-wire finance on Wall Street.

After a year of turmoil in the financial industry that climaxed last week with bankruptcies and government takeovers, the two companies agreed to submit themselves to far tighter regulations by applying for the new status.

The US central bank late Sunday accepted the two companies' applications, pending a five-day antitrust waiting period.

Berlin - Deutsche Bank announced Monday that it would issue new shares to raise capital for the acquisition of a 29.75-per-cent stake in Deutsche Postbank.

The bank said it expected to raise around 2 billion euros (2.9 billion dollars) from the issue of up to 40 million new registered shares.

Deutsche Bank announced on September 12 that it had agreed to pay 2.8 billion euros to become the biggest single stakeholder in Postbank, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post.

The rights issue would maintain the strong equity capitalization, following the acquisition, the bank said in a statement.

Washington, Sept. 22 : Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last surviving big investment banks on Wall Street, have become regulated banks.

In a statement issued at 9.30 p. m. local time Sunday the Federal Reserve said it had approved their applications to become bank holding companies, subject to regulation by the Fed.