Frankfurt  - Germany could be on the brink of a major shakeout in its fragmented banking industry with investors betting Monday on an announcement this week of an 8-billion-euro (12 billion-dollar) merger between two of the nation's leading banks.

Indeed, shares in Allianz SE jumped more than 1.0 per cent in early trading Monday on speculation that the German giant insurer could announce this week a deal to merge its troubled banking offshoot Frankfurt-based Dresdner with cross-town rival Commerzbank AG.

New-age private lender Yes Bank and networking giant Cisco have introduced ‘Yes touch phone-banking services’, a speech-enabled voice recognition facility for the first time in the Indian financial services sector.

With the latest facility, the bank's customers will now be able to access their accounts 24X7 that will support business-related queries and transactions.

Private sector lender IndusInd Bank has entered into a securitization deal in microfinance worth Rs 150 crore with SKS Microfinance, which will help the private sector bank to foray into agri-products as well as microfinance.

Under the transaction, SKS Microfinance offered a pool of assets to IndusInd Bank.

The deal would be executed in two phases. The first tranche of the Rs 100-crore was closed on July 29 and the second tranche is expected to conclude in February next year.

Stockholm - Swedish senior citizens have reacted angrily after a newspaper disclosed that several banks have upper age limits for loans or credit cards.

Principal Mutual Fund (formerly known as IDBI-Principal Mutual Fund) has entered into an alliance with The Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank for distribution of its products through the bank’s branc

Bangkok - The Thai baht hit a nine-month low against the dollar Wednesday, trading at 34.15 to the greenback, bank sources said.

The sharp decline in the currency was attributed to heavy buying of dollars by foreign banks in Thailand and importers, said the Kasikorn Research Center, a think-tank attached to Kasikorn Bank.

Like most Asian currencies, the Thai baht has steadily appreciated against the dollar, gaining almost 20 per cent over the past two years before starting to weaken in June in the wake of rising inflation, growing political instability, declines on the stock market and slowing growth projections.