Hong Kong  - Panicked customers queued up Wednesday to withdraw their savings from branches of the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong as rumours circulated that the bank was facing financial problems.

The rumours were categorically denied by the bank's management, which nevertheless had to extend business hours by 30 minutes to cope with the queues of anxious customers.

The Bank of East Asia, owned by one of Hong Kong's wealthiest families, blamed "malicious rumours" that it said had been circulating in the market since Monday and questioned the bank's financial stability.

New Delhi  - About a million employees of India's public sector banks Wednesday went on a two-day nationwide strike to protest the government's policies in the banking industry and the delay in revising wages.

Conciliatory talks between the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) representatives and Chief Labour Commissioner SK Mukhopadhyaya in New Delhi on Tuesday failed to yield any results.

"Talks with the chief labour commissioner have failed and we proceeded with the strike," UFBU leader VK Gupta told the PTI news agency.

New Delhi: In order to protest against the government’s privatatisation policy, about nine lakh bank employees of 26 public sector banks would go on for a two day nationwide strike beginning today.

Earlier, the bank employees union and chief labour commissioner failed to come to an agreement.

Speaking on this, C.H Venkatachalam, convener, united forum of bank unions’ (UFBU) said, "The talks with the chief labour commissioner have failed and we are proceeding with the strike.” 

Mumbai, Sept 24: Over nine lakh bank employees are going on a two-day strike from today demanding settlement of issues like wage revision and termination of job outsourcing in banking sector among other things.

Normal banking transactions are likely to be disrupted across 50,000 branches, including about 15,000 branches of the State Bank of India (SBI) and its six associate banks.

New York - Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc gained the potentially influential support of legendary investor Warren Buffett late Tuesday.

The announcement that Buffett's firm, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, would buy a 5-billion-dollar stake in Goldman Sachs comes as the investment banking firm is converting itself to a normal bank holding company, a decision reached this week to obtain greater access to loans from the US Federal Reserve. The conversion will place Goldman Sachs under greater government scrutiny.

Tehran  - Iran's Central Bank (CBI) Chief Tahmasseb Mazaheri was on Tuesday replaced by his general secretary Mahmoud Bahmani, ISNA news agency reported.

Mazaheri is the second CBI governor to resign within President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's three-year presidential tenure. The first governor, Ebrahim Sheibani, resigned in August last year over differences with the president in the country's economic management.