Munich - Hypo Real Estate, the German bank caught up in the past two weeks' wave of collapses, said Saturday the government-backed bail-out it was hoping for had collapsed.

The mortgage lender said assurances of loans from several other financial institutions had expired.

Munich-based Hypo Real Estate, which mainly lends to commercial projects and to build public facilities, said it was assessing the impact on its various divisions and was seeking alternatives.

The central Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received a request from an industry lobby on Thursday to reduce cash reserve ratio and repo rate by 1 per cent, so that liquidity can be pumped into the markets. 

Furthermore, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) in its recommendations has appealed to RBI to allow banks to borrow against government securities and make avail dollars directly to oil companies, instead of steering them through the market for the purchase of crude. 

The Executives of the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) are in Bangalore for a week to meet possible partners for doing their IT work. This step of out-sourcing has been taken by the HBOS to cut-down on its expenditure. However, a leading newspaper reveals that the trip of 11 Executives has cost the company 45,000 pounds. 

Public Sector lender Allahabad Bank is targeting a growth of 20 percent in its loan portfolio and 17 per cent in deposits this fiscal.

According to the bank, the loan growth will be mainly from small and medium enterprises, steel, cement and commercial real estate sectors.

Apart from this, the bank is targeting a premium income of Rs 400 crore annually from general insurance business, which would be set up in partnership with other banks and financial institutions by year 2011.

The bank also intends to maintain the net interest margin at 2.75 % and the capital adequacy ratio at 11% during the current financial year.

New York  - In a surprise development, Wells Fargo bank and the fourth-largest US bank Wachovia Corp. announced Friday that Wells Fargo had entered the bidding with an offer for a complete merger with Wachovia.

The announcement said Wells Fargo had presented Wachovia with a signed and board-approved offer to buy Wachovia as an intact company in a stock-for-stock merger which could be carried out without government help.

London  - Britain Friday increased the upper limit of guarantees offered to savers on deposits to 50,000 pounds (90,000 dollars), the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said.

The increase from 35,000 pounds is due to come into force next Tuesday as part of a wider package of stabilization measures worked out after the near-collapse of the Northern Rock lender last year.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme would also pay up to 100,000 pounds to couples with a joint account who lost money when a bank failed, said the FSA.