Country's thi

Phnom Penh - Cambodia has welcomed an initial application by the Bank of India to open in Phnom Penh, local media reported Tuesday.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper quoted Finance Ministry director of investment Chan Sothy as saying the nationalized Indian bank, which has a presence in all the major trade centres of the world, applied to open in April.

The paper quoted Sothy as saying he and Finance Minister Keat Chhon met with outgoing Indian ambassador Aloke Sen Friday and "welcomed the Bank of India to open a branch in Cambodia."

Washington - Financial shares led a sharp drop Monday on Wall Street after news of the collapse of a small bank in Kansas fed continuing worries about bad loans still on the books of companies in the sector.

Columbian Bank & Trust Co, based in Kansas, became the ninth federally insured bank to fail this year in the United States, a symptom of the continuing repercussions of the US mortgage crisis, which has plagued Wall Street since the deflation of a housing price bubble last year.

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.