Wellington  - New Zealand's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate from 8 per cent to 7.5 per cent on Thursday, its second drop in seven weeks after making no reductions for five years.

The Reserve Bank had cut its Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 8 per cent on July 24 after keeping it at 8.25 per cent - one of the highest in the developed world - for 12 months, in a bid to contain inflation within its target range of 1 to 3 per cent.

New York - The US fourth-largest investment bank Lehman Brothers announced Wednesday in New York a preliminary third-quarter loss of a 3.9 billion dollars, in a continuation of the company's financial woes.

The loss compares to an 877 million-dollar profit in the same quarter in 2007.

The company also announced a radical restructuring plan that would include drastic reduction of its annual dividend payment and the selling of its majority stake in its investment management business in order to acquire billions of urgently-needed capital.

Job losses are also on the table, it said.

Frankfurt - Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, stuck Wednesday to his optimistic prediction that the world financial crisis will be over soon.

His remarks at a conference in Frankfurt contrasted with the more pessimistic Eurozone outlook the same day in Brussels from European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.

Ackermann told a gathering organized by the German newspaper Handelsblatt that the end of the downturn was becoming more tangible: "We see a stabilization.

As part of its fund raising plans, Union Bank of India is all set to raise Rs 300 crore in its upper tier.

The bank is expected to make a declaration on this in the coming days.

The bonds will carry a coupon rate of about 11 percent.

Recently, the banking institution finished raising additional capital to the extent of Rs 2 billion by issue of Hybrid Tier I Capital, Perpetual Bonds with a rate of about 11.15 percent.

The bonds are ranked as `AA+ / Stable` by CRISIL & `LAA` with Stable outlook by ICRA.

Mr. M V Nair, chairman and MD, stated, “This is a part of our plan to raise Rs 1,000 crore. We will be raising another Rs 500 crore lower tier capital by the month-end.”

Mumbai, Sept 10 : The new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao, has said India''s inflation rate is showing some signs of moderation but, it is still too early to conclude whether it represents a discernable trend.

Subbarao, who took over from Y. V. Reddy on Friday revealed this at his first news conference on Tuesday.

Singapore - The Qatar National Bank has upgraded its Singapore operations from a representative office to a branch offering a range of commercial services and products, the bank said Wednesday.

Qatar's biggest bank and the first from the country to operate in Singapore said in a statement that it would offer such services as project finance, trade finance, fixed deposits, current accounts and corporate loans.

The branch was established as "emerging opportunities will boost the business trade between Qatar, Singapore and other Asian countries," the statement said.