Amsterdam - Dutch insurance company Aegon annou

London - The British government Monday announced the partial nationalization of ailing mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley (B&B), the second bank this year to be taken into public ownership.

Amsterdam  - Shareholders and analysts were waiting for the stock exchanges to open Monday to see if the 49-per-cent nationalization of Dutch-Belgian insurance and banking giant Fortis would regain the confidence of investors.

Late Sunday night the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg announced they had each purchased 49 per cent of Fortis, paying the bank a total of 11.2 billion euros (16.35 billion dollars).

The Dutch government will take over 49 per cent of the insurance company, for which it will pay some 4 billion euros. The Dutch banking division ABN Amro is to be sold.

India's biggest public-sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) has increased its deposit rates in certain maturities effective from October 1.

The bank has launched a 1000-days deposit scheme that provides 10.5% interest to depositors. However, senior citizens will receive a higher 11% interest in the new deposit-scheme.

Besides this, the lender has informed that an additional 0.25% rate above the card rate will be offered on a single term deposit of Rs 15 lakh and above, having tenure of 181 days to less than 2 years.

ING Vysya Bank, one of India’s leading private sector banks, is presently concentrating on retail banking and expansion plans to increase lender’s footprint across the country.

Yesterday, the bank has opened 11 ATM outlets in Hyderabad, including eight in the city. The other ATMs are located in Warangal, Khammam and Guntur.

During launching ceremony, ING Vysya said that its focus is on growing the bank's franchise and providing banking convenience 24/7 by strengthening its alternate delivery channels.

Amsterdam - Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos had an emergency meeting with the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) management in Amsterdam to discuss the future of Dutch-Belgian bank and insurance company Fortis, it was reported on Sunday.

Bos was seen leaving the DNB premises early Sunday morning. The meeting had started late Saturday.

On Saturday, Dutch financial daily Het Financieele Dablad reported ABN AMRO Bank Netherlands, which was formally taken over by Fortis in October 2007 but operates as an autonomous banking unit within Fortis until late 2009, may be sold.