New Delhi, August 8 : The Punjab and Sind Bank can now go for an Initial Public Offer at a reasonable premium for raising additional capital from the market.

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for re-structuring the equity capital of the Punjab and Sind Bank by converting an amount of Rs. 160 crore into ‘Innovative Perpetual Debt Instrument’ (under Tier-I), Rs. 200 crore into Perpetual Non-cumulative Preference Shares (under Tier II Capital), while retaining Rs. 183.06 crore as the equity capital of the bank.

London - Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Friday reported a pre-tax loss of 691 million pounds (1.38 billion dollars) in the first six months of 2008 which experts said was one of the biggest losses in British banking history.

RBS, Britain's second-largest bank, said it was hit by writedowns of 5.9 billion pounds bn of write-downs after the credit crunch cut the value of many of its mortgages and assets.

One of India’s auto-loans major and the largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank has decided to source two-wheeler loans only through its branches and not at the dealers' end.

The bank has discontinued its two-wheeler loans at dealer's end effective August 15, 2008.  

Under its revised conditions, the two-wheeler loans now will only be available through its branches. However for cars, it would continue lending from the dealers’ showrooms.

According to the ICICI, The shift in the strategy is due to high operating costs.  

A day after Union Bank of India hiked its benchmark prime lending rate, the Corporation Bank has also decided to revise its lending rates upward by 50 basis points from the present level of 13.50%

Prague  - The Czech central bank cut the key two-week repo rate by a quarter point to 3.5 per cent Thursday despite high inflation in order to halt a rapid appreciation of the Czech koruna.

"The bank is fighting against the world's most appreciating currency," said Raiffeisenbank analyst Ales Michl. "It is so important for the bank to risk inflation."

The central bankers had hiked the key rate five times between May 2007 and February 2008 to fend off growing prices but have lately signaled intention to take a reverse step aimed at cooling the strong Czech currency.

Frankfurt  - The European Central Bank (ECB) left its key interest rate on hold Thursday amid growing economic concerns triggered by spiralling inflation and contracting growth.